Glowing colour, imagined architecture and the unpredictable effects of ink and bleach give Elodie Burls’ paintings the appearance of light passing through stained glass.

Knysna Fine Art, Knysna

In Fragile Keeping | Elodie Burls at Knysna Fine Art

South African artist Elodie Burls presents In Fragile Keeping, a solo exhibition at Knysna Fine Art, featuring luminous landscapes and architectural forms created using dye-based inks and bleach on resin-coated photographic paper.

Working on the paper’s smooth, glossy surface, Burls allows ink to spread and settle before introducing bleach to draw light back into the image. The process is part control, part chance, with buildings, reflections and landscapes gradually emerging from the shifting colour.

Her paintings often feature glass-like structures and imagined pavilions set against natural surroundings. Rich, glowing colours suggest sunlight filtering through stained glass, while windows, reflections and fragments of architecture give the scenes an uncertain sense of depth.

For Knysna Fine Art owner Trent Read, the value of this painstakingly handmade work is especially apparent in an age of disposable digital imagery:

“In our increasingly tawdry world of mass-produced AI slop and clickbait, beautiful handmade artworks stand out all the more with their inherent honesty and quality shining from amidst all of the cheap imitations.”

— Trent Read, Knysna Fine Art

Read sees echoes of artists as different as John Piper and Piranesi in Burls’ imagined architecture, alongside a strong connection to the Elgin Valley, where she lives and works.

Burls came to painting in her early forties, following two decades as a creative entrepreneur working with technology clients. She studied drama and English at Rhodes University and has trained with painter Cathy Milner since 2021. Her approach is intuitive: she begins without a fixed composition, following the movement of the ink and allowing the image to develop through successive layers of colour and bleach.

Born in 1981, Burls has exhibited at 99 Loop Gallery in Cape Town, Weissraum Gallery in Germany, District4art in Vienna and Knysna Fine Art. Her work has also appeared at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair with 99 Loop Gallery.

Exhibition Opening | Saturday, 31 October 2026 | 11:00–13:00
Knysna Fine Art, Thesen House, 6 Long Street, Knysna.

Images courtesy of Knysna Fine Art and Elodie Burls.