Graskop, Mpumalanga, South Africa » Personalities

Personalities of Graskop. Part 3: Ian Whyte PhD, SAN Parks Scientist Extrordinaire

tourism marketer — Fri, 03 Jan 2014 10:31:13 +0000

Ian Whyte PhD.

Dr Ian J Whyte, Kruger’s experienced elephant specialist is a confident and accomplished scientist but if it wasn’t for a rather sedate sport, his career path could have been very different. Born in 1947 in Vereeniging, and an underachiever (by his own admission) at school in Joahannesburg the young Ian had to retake his Matriculation exam and failed to reach the required level needed for University.

Ian started his career in1970 as Technical Assistant with the Dept. of Agricultural Technical Services and proceeded to advance in the research field to the position of Program Manager.

Students with Game Capture Crew

When his parents retired to White River Ian joined them shortly afterwards and took a job in an orange juice canning factory. In his spare time he was a keen cricket player. While partaking in a match at Skukuza one day, he struck up a friendship with one of the Kruger game capture crew.

When a vacancy for a Technical Assistant came up in the Park sometime later, the cricketing bond meant Ian was recommended for the job.

Magnificent Tusker named Mashagadsi photographed by Ian Whyte

Ian had always been interested in wildlife; devouring his father’s collection of books and enjoying time spent on his brother’s farm. Joining Kruger in 1970, he spent over three years assisting on the lion census. Spending every night moving from pride to pride, capturing and studying lions, was the fulfillment of one of his boyhood dreams. The other was to come later.

Masthulele photographed by Ian Whyte

Catching up on his education while working, Ian took a Certificate of Field Ecology at the University of Rhodesia and completed his Masters on the predator/prey relationship between lions and wildebeest at the University of Natal. By now responsible for Kruger’s lion studies, he offered to ‘swap’ jobs, for the rather less glamorous sounding buffalo post, when an experienced colleague from the Kalahari moved to Kruger.

Dr. Anthony Hall-Martin

There are many parallels between the study of buffalo and elephant so, when Kruger’s famed elephant scientist Anthony Hall-Martin moved on to Pretoria, it seemed sensible for Ian to combine his work on both animals.

A further resume of Ian’s work:
Large Herbivores: Kruger National Park, from which he retired in July 1997. His many talents did not stop there and as a pilot he became involved in annual fixed wing census in the Kruger National Park. As an avid birder, he has acted as Ornithologist in the Kruger National Park between 1985 and 1998 (Co-ordination of ornithological research and other projects – translocation of Redbilled Oxpeckers etc.).

Chopper Standing by for Work

He has had many other noteworthy influences on conservation such as co-authoring a book on the birds of the Kruger National Park. He has also been the sole or senior author of 16 scientific publications and co-author of 15 others, senior author of seven chapters in technical books, plus two as co-author. He authored 38 Scientific Reports to South African National Parks, and 28 articles in popular journals. Ian completed his Ph.D at the University of Pretoria with a thesis titled

Fixed Wing for Game Census

“The Conservation Management of Elephants in the Kruger National Park.” His thesis bears none of the hallmarks of obscure, highly-specialised, abstract science. Instead it is a broad, readable account of the myriad factors that need to be considered when managing elephant populations in the confined area of Kruger National Park. As an acknowledgement of Ian’s work in Kruger, his colleagues recently motivated that one of Kruger’s impressive big tuskers be named after him. Living up to Ian’s Tsonga name, Masthulele, which means ‘the quiet one’, has only been photographed twice; both times by Ian on the annual elephant census. Despite falling into his 35 year career with Kruger by accident, Ian has been bowled over by the experience.

Ian retired recently after 37 years dedicated service to the Kruger National Park. He is married to Merle (née Retief) and has two children, Lorna (40) and Neil (39), who followed his father’s example in the conservation industry. Ian and Merle currently have five grandchildren.

The Whytes relocated to the quiet quaint village of Graskop some time back where Ian is now involved with the Graskop Grasslands Conservancy.

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Personalities of Graskop. Part 1: James Stroud, Artist. A Success Story in Fine Art

tourism marketer — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 10:22:00 +0000

James Stroud Artist

James Stroud
Sculptures in paint

There is nothing meek or ambiguous about a charging elephant especially when the tusker in question appears to be lunging off a canvas from South African painter James Stroud. His vivid wildlife portraits are so different from the flat surfaces of most sporting art they could be described as sculptures of paint. A topo map is almost required to navigate through his sense canyons of texture and rivers of color.

James' Work Bench

And it is no exaggeration to say that Stroud, who made a hugely successful debut in North America at Safari Club International’s 2007 convention, takes an elbow deep approach to laying down oil. Whether he is pushing paint thickly with a palette knife or using other tools including his hands to achieve distinctive visual effects such as portraying dust on a Cape Buffalo, the spots on a leopard’s coat or the flowing mane of a lion. Stroud has won praise from collectors for making his subjects actually look – and feel – true to life.

Giraffes in Reflection

“It excites me that someone is able to look at the animal image and be seduced by it, and then be able to look more closely at the paint itself and understand the actual physiology of the illusion,” Stroud says. Still, the dilemma for contemporary nature painters Stroud explains, lies with deciding how to celebrate the environment and iconic African species without falling into the trap of confirming old visual clichés . “I see my work as an attempt to both affirm the natural beauty of the visual world and at the same time to dissect the assumptions that we have about what great art is supposed to be.”

Elephants in Oils by Palette Knife

A South African native, he grew up on a timber plantation in eastern Mpumalanga on the wild edge of Kruger Park. On a primal level, he had a front row seat to predators and prey. Mpumalanga was a crossroads for international hunters and photographers. Sketching both people and animals, Stroud went to a rural school where Afrikaans was the first language and English the second

Warthogs in Oils by Palette Knife

However, the most important aspect of Stroud’s work is the uniqueness and originality of the style and medium. Often referred to as the LeRoy Neiman of wildlife art, he has taken his work further creating sculptural paintings in more true-to-life light and color.

James was born in 1970 in the Eastern Transvaal town of Graskop. It was at a very young age that he became aware of his artistic talent, and thus chose art as a subject at school until matric (1987).

Still Life Oils and Brush

In 1990 he graduated from Natal University with a BA in Fine Art and History of Art as subjects. He undertook various inspirational gallery tours to London and Edinburgh in 1991, to New York and Rome in 1993 and to Egypt in 1995. Stroud started his profession doing mainly ceramics and in 1994 he started painting seriously.

A year later he was privileged to be selected by the Pretoria Art Museum to exhibit as an up and coming artists. The biggest banking group in Africa, ABSA, acquired of his works for their collections.

Flowers in Oils by Palette Knife

James Stroud is an outdoor person and has developed an unique eye for nature and in parallel with this, he has a real quest to place his interpretation of what he sees on canvas. His landscapes and animal studies with the distinctive broad Stroud strokes extrude the creative energy of his artistic passion. Stroud is inspiring, his art is an experience.

Lioness in Oils by Palette Knife

Unfortunately, James Stroud’s work is virtually unobtainable in South Africa today. He supplies and is represented by a number of prestigious galleries in the USA. he sells almost exclusively abroad.

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Join us for Art Gallery tours in the Highveld, Escarpment, Lowveld regions and beyond. Call our Dream Merchants at TRIPS ZA for more information on
013 764 1177

Email us at johnt@tripsza.com