If you walk on Garden Route beaches, you will know that Robberg Beach, Lookout Beach, and for that matter all our beaches, never look the same, not even twice, nor does one beach have the same temperament as another.

The water changes colour constantly; the waves are either peaceful or powerful; currents merge and part, flow and shift, and the sea is in a constant state of flux. It is really quite miraculous.

This phenomenon is one that only a very talented and accomplished artist could hope to capture.

South African master landscape painter, Walter Voigt, has done just that with a new series of oil on canvas paintings focusing on seascapes. Voigt is a full-time artist and until now is best known for his breathtaking landscapes, cityscapes and dramatic cloudscapes.

Voigt will be having an exhibition at Knysna Fine Art, opening on May 3, 2025, called Changing Tides.

It is a paradigm shift from what he normally paints. Instead of capturing the bushveld, that magical dry smell and feel of the African bush, he has chosen seascapes in this current body of paintings. Voigt says these new paintings portray the sea in all its moods, sometimes benign and serene, at other times dangerous with great swells, merciless currents and crashing breakers.

Changing Tides is a shift, Voigt says, because he has veered from his usual subject matter, the nature of the sea is ever-changing, but also reflective of how life shifts, how change is a part of life.  For him change has also meant moving from the bushveld to Plettenberg Bay two and a half years ago.

For the purpose of this exhibition Voigt has produced 11 seascapes and they differ from his usual landscapes because white and blue colours dominate. There is water, wind and spray, immense power and energy in all of them, he says.

His paintings for this exhibition are also a shift in size as they are smaller than usual.

Painting water requires great skill, explains Voigt. “The Impressionists, such as Monet and Sisley, recognised that while water is colourless it reflects every colour imaginable, and that can include the purest of pure white and the deepest of deep blue,” he says.

For those of us who are familiar with Plett beaches, you might recognise a favourite spot Voigt has captured such as Robberg Shoreline with Oystercatcher which is a 100cm x 200cm masterpiece, the largest in this collection. In this piece, the spray is silver as it flies off the waves; the rocks are solid, permanent and very present, and the bird so determined as it swoops. This painting is gorgeous. It is untamed and restless, but also mysterious enough that one could never get tired of looking at it.

 Image: Robberg Shoreline with Oystercatcher, oil on canvas, 100 x 200cm

Other paintings in this exhibition include Late Sunlight over Lookout, 100cm x 150cm; Golden Hour Over the Bay, 90cm x 150cm; Wave Crash, The Wedge, 61cm x 121cm; Southern Tip, Cape Agulhas, 60cm x 100cm; Advancing Tide, Robberg Beach, 60cm x 100cm; Sundown, The Wedge, 60cm x 100cm; Sunset Wave Break, Cape Agulhas, 60cm x 100cm; Waveblast, Plettenberg Bay, 60cm x 100cm; Rocky Waters, Plettenberg Bay, 60cm x 100cm and Point Break, 60cm x 100cm.It is very hard to find words that describe these seascapes...they simply need to be seen.

Anybody who knows about South African art will be familiar with Voigt’s parents, both accomplished artists in their own right.

Harold Voigt, Walter’s late father created landscapes, abstract paintings and human figures using a wide range of mixed-media techniques including sand, marble dust, wax and oil and his work can be found in prestigious public and private collections.

Walter’s mother, Leigh Voigt, is known for her paintings inspired by nature, such as birds, Nguni cattle and trees. She has produced several books, such as The Abundant Herds among others.

Walter Voigt was born in Johannesburg in 1971 and when he was four years old, the family moved to a nature conservancy in the mountainous Lowveld escarpment. He went to school in White River, and then Pretoria, and then in 1992, he completed a three-year course in graphic design, majoring in illustration, at the Witwatersrand Technikon in Johannesburg. “Becoming an artist came naturally to me because of my parents’ influence. I started drawing as a child and then studied graphic design, but found my place in painting,” he says.

Of his move to the Garden Route and the sea, he says: “One cannot help but be absorbed by the ocean's energy and the light that falls on a particular part of a wave, a rock or patch of sand. This would inspire any landscape painter to want to paint it.”

The Everard Read Galleries in South Africa and London have given Voigt “wind under his wings and great support,” he says. He has had 14 solo exhibitions in South Africa and two in London. His work has found homes in Australia, California and Europe.

Walter Voigt describes himself as a man of the sky and the earth, of water and air. He hikes, cycles, paraglides, scuba dives and takes to his motor bike to experience the natural elements. “All these activities give me a perspective, a three-dimensional look at the ground, the clouds, the sea and the rich bounty of the natural world around me and therefore the elements I paint.”