Jonathan Sanders

The sensibilities of Jonathan Sanders are informed by place. He has the traveler's eye for the idiosyncrasy of each locale in the moment it is encountered—the sunlight of a cloudy autumn noontime, a wash of desert gloaming on a waterhole, the lope of camels and the stride of elephants. His impressions of the African savannah are not attempts at mimetic representation, yet they bring to mind the best action photography of National Geographic. "I begin with a quick monotone composition," he says of his acrylics on board. "As soon as possible the color is applied, layer upon layer. It is an impression, a sense of place and time that I am trying to portray." He makes his home in the UK, whose ever-shifting weather pushes him to create. Sanders has been exhibiting since the early 1980s, and his work turns up everywhere from Ikea stores to CD covers for the likes of Sergio Mendes and Ladysmith Black Mombazo.