What once was

What Once Was is an original contemporary painting by Cape Town artist Amy Ayanda Lester, exploring memory, transformation, and the emotional traces of place and experience.

This one-of-a-kind artwork sits within Amy Lester’s broader practice of contemporary South African painting, where abstraction and figurative elements merge to form emotional landscapes. Through layered acrylic paint and expressive mark-making, the work reflects on what is lost, remembered, and carried forward both personally and collectively.

Created in her home studio in Cape Town, South Africa, this original painting is part of an evolving body of work rooted in nature, memory, and imagined landscapes.

Details
Original mixed media painting
Acrylic and hand-drawn elements on fine art paper
One-of-one artwork
Hand-signed by the artist
Unframed, with framing in glass or mounting available at checkout
Processing time for framed or mounted original artwork purchases is 7 to 10 working days

Ideal for collectors of contemporary South African art, abstract landscape painting, and emotionally expressive original artworks.