About the Artist
Meet Audrey Kruger
I am a born and raised South African from Cape Town, now living in super sunny Tampa Bay, Florida.
My first love?
My Time Magazine camera! It was love at first click at the age of 13 and I have never turned back! As I travelled and explored I realized that within the viewfinder lived a whole different world, one where there is no outside noise, just the color and beauty that is earth, culture, humanity, and wildlife.
Travel Photography
Travel is ingrained in my DNA. I blame my nomadic roots, with centuries of ancestors traveling and moving around the globe exploring far-off and often uncharted territories.
As I travelled I found myself, my true self, and realized just how incredible seeing, touching, feeling history is. Learning about new and different cultures expands one’s mind more than any book education could ever do.
We are all uniquely different yet we all, no matter our religion, race, or nationality are all human deserving of respect, compassion, and kindness. Culture and humanity are my passions, with the belief that by sharing the spirit of Ubuntu, we can all make the world a better place, one moment at a time.
Wildlife Photography
My love for wildlife started as a kid, and all thanks to my grandfather, “Oupie,” who would take me camping and exploring South Africa’s wilderness. My earliest memory of wildlife is when a baboon jumped on the hood of our car and just stared at me through the window, and another when a zebra stopped near our car and, again, stared at me.
As I grew older, I wanted to capture those moments I had with the wild and keep them close to my heart. I wanted to share the moments with the world so they could see how incredible these animals are and how much they matter to the world.
Painting what I see
Art, like travel, is in my blood. My father passed away before my 5th birthday and the only thing I have of his is his one remaining charcoal drawing of Table Mountain. Ever since I was young I have dabbled in different mediums, some I loved, some I moved on from pretty quickly. The one that stuck? Painting in oil.
I began painting in oil in my 20’s and sold my first artwork in a small gallery in Cape Town. At the time I painted mainly landscapes and still life scenes.
Fast forward a decade and I found myself sitting in front of a photo I had printed on canvas for someone and thought to myself, she really wanted to be painted. And so “My Soul” came into being. The elephant on the right is my first true wildlife in oil painting, covered in symbology and, if you look carefully, a spot of green shows through the orange. Why? Because we are never one color, but rather if we dig deeper, every human has hidden color aka facets.