In the course of his work, Jeremy has been lucky enough to see inside some of the grandest buildings in the world. However, his home for this residency was as simple as it comes: a mud hut on the edge of a wetland in South Africa. But there are few other places that Jeremy would rather paint because this body of water is home to vast, colourful flocks of flamingos.

The Oppenheimer family, as part of their advocacy for South Africa’s threatened birdlife, built an artificial island on the Kamfer’s Dam wetland to provide breeding grounds for tens of thousands of flamingos. After a member of the family saw a painting of flamingos that Jeremy had previously produced, they asked Jeremy to document the spectacular scenes at Kamfer’s Dam.

Since this residency, Jeremy has continued to paint these beautiful birds. “Flamingos give you infinite possibilities for composition,” he says. “With flamingos, when I start painting, I don’t know what I’m going to achieve: I just go for it. And I always find something fun, colourful, and uplifting. It’s a totally different way from how I usually work, which is great because it stops me getting stagnant.”