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§ Welcome
Half engineering,
half nonsense,
all impractical.
I paint in acrylic and watercolour: birds fitted with the airframes of real aircraft, villages along Route 62, and the occasional impossible thing. Some of it is invented carefully, like a blueprint. Some of it is just what I noticed and wanted to keep.
This is a place to look slowly. Wander a series, read the story behind a piece, or just let the colour do the talking.
Start looking →§ 01 — Aeromechanica
From the WWII air wars, fought by aeromechanica insects to modern commercial jets powered by cocoa.
Creatures fitted with the airframes of real aircraft. Some carry RAF roundels, some Luftwaffe Balkenkreuze. A small war fought by birds, beetles, mosquitos, robber flies and hornets. A commercial, passenger-carrying, biomechanical plane, using large language models. Half engineering, half nonsense, all impractical.
FlightGPT — a bird brain and language model, coupled
FlightGPT
Watercolour · Paper
A bird brain and language model combination, designed to power a biomechanical aircraft. The senses feed a perception builder, the language model mixes reality against the flight plan, and the physical controls translate it all into wings, cabin and fuel.
The drawings — origin, airframe, cockpit
Aeromechanica (side profile)
A4 · Watercolour · Hot Press
Side elevation. ILS trees on either side of the runway. Annotated for free flight, slurp, smoothie and feed.
Aeromechanica (top profile)
A3 · Watercolour · Hot Press
Top elevation. The high-nutrition bypass propulsion engine, with mixer, microwave and CO2 extractor.
Aeromechanica Chocolatus Airframe Cutaway
A3 · Ink, Pastel & Watercolour
A cutaway of the airframe. The structure follows a bird's rib strategy, with the wings mounted to the airframe and driven by the Flaperon Engine. Fuel is carried in bags. The Dove Tail keeps the flight stable.
Aeromechanica Chocolatus Cockpit
Watercolour & Ink · Paper
The control panel of the Chocolatus. Emergency feeding draws from the seed and cacao reserves. The bird brain, the flightGPT LLM and Foodec are all marshalled from here.
The squadron — allied, axis, jet age
Lucanus Aeromechanica Avronis
A4 · Watercolour · Vellum
A stag beetle on the airframe of an Avro. Mandibles up, RAF roundels, bombs slung beneath.
Culex Aeromechanica De Havillandii
A4 · Watercolour · Vellum
A mosquito turned De Havilland Mosquito. Two Merlins, three crew, RAF roundels.
Libellula Aviatica
Acryla Gouache · Canvas
A dragonfly given the airframe of a biplane. Two pairs of wings, a twin tail, RAF roundels.
Promachus Aeromechanicus Crucifer
A4 · Watercolour · Vellum
A robber fly with cruciform wings and Balkenkreuze. Predator built like a fighter.
Avis Aeromechanica Crabro
A4 · Watercolour · Vellum
A hornet on a Bf 109 nose. Six legs, Luftwaffe markings, fuselage 13.
Avis Aeromechanica Paciferus
A4 · Watercolour · Vellum
A bird with swept gull-wing wings and a 27.642m span. Mach 2.64, crew of one, armed with rotten eggs.
§ 02 — Rurban
Buildings, hills, and the occasional tree.
Scenes reduced to what I actually noticed. Route 62 country, the harbours of False Bay, and a few places further afield that asked to be painted.
The Road to Somewhere (Part One)
1000 × 750 mm · Canvas
Reimagining the R62. Sometimes on life's journey we reach a destination that brings joy, abundant fruit, colour, a beautiful house at the end of the road. The journey to Know Where is not over, but this is a good stopping point.
Cantabrian Mountains
1000 × 750 mm · Canvas
A rural farm setting near Espinosa de los Monteros. One of the best places I have been on holiday.
Suurbraak
1000 × 750 mm · Canvas
A charming village near Swellendam.
The Last Holiday, Amsterdam
1000 × 750 mm · Canvas
Overlooking a pond in Amsterdam Noord. A lot of small but interesting things to see, if you look for them.
Watercolours on paper
St James
A3 · Watercolour
Bo-Kaap
A3 · Watercolour
Montagu
A3 · Watercolour
§ 03 — Surreal
Where the brush wanders off the map.
I start with what I see and what I hear. Then I paint, and the painting starts making its own decisions. Colours push harder, geometry tightens, and what was a real place becomes something that was always hiding inside it.
A Starling's Reformation at Five to Midnight
750 × 1000 mm · Holbein Acryla Gouache · Canvas
A reflection on the way nature can take from us, often without warning, even the things we value most. No authority, influence or urgency can reclaim what has been lost once time begins to run out. To me it is about universal reckoning, and the limits of human control.
Bilbao, Guggenheim Museum
750 × 1000 mm · Acryla Gouache · Canvas
Elevating the titanium-clad building and its art to new levels.
The Grand Insect Hotel
750 × 1000 mm · Acryla Gouache · Canvas
The official painting commemorating The Insect Hotel.
The Road to Know Where?
Holbein Acryla Gouache · Canvas
At a crossroads. A path chosen, but the destination unknown.
The Love Vending Machine
1500 × 2000 mm · Acryla Gouache · Canvas
Channelling the positive energy of the Universe into human endeavours.
Watercolours on paper
Sir Real
A3 · Watercolour
Eye Field
A3 · Watercolour
Listening
A3 · Watercolour
§ More to see
This is a selection. There is more.
The villages and harbours, the surreal pieces and the portraits, the watercolours that did not fit above. The full collection lives on its own page.
Browse the full collection →§ About Jono
I draw before I paint (a blueprint, a cutaway, an annotation), and then I let the colour break the rules the drawing set.
I work in acrylic, Holbein Acryla Gouache and watercolour. Mostly from the Western Cape: the villages along Route 62, the harbours after rain, the light on a hillside. I draw the plan first, then let the colour disobey it. None of the images here are AI-generated. Every piece is a physical object, real paint on real canvas or paper.
I also write. The essays here are not about art. They are about the things I care enough to write down: governance, technology, and how institutions work or fail to.
Read the essays →Originals & prints
Most pieces are available as originals or prints. There is no pressure to buy. If something here speaks to you, send a message and we can talk about it.
Enquire about a piece →