In 2011, I photographed my daughter taking off her shoes in the red sand of Mmankgodi, Botswana.
She had spotted elderly Batswana women singing and clapping at a cultural festival, and without hesitation — without being told, without overthinking — she kicked off her shoes and walked toward them barefoot. I don’t know what look was on her face. But the old women’s faces told me everything.
That photograph made me quit my IT career and pick up a brush for the first time since graduating with a BA in Fine Art in 1995.
A Setswana Welcome was the first painting I completed. It was my starting gun.
Daughter of the Soil, completed in 2026, is my same little girl — from the same day, the same red earth, the same bare feet — painted fourteen years and well over 100 paintings later. She is older now, grounded and at peace in the soil that shaped her. American children make snow angels. African children make sand angels. 😉
Everything I have made exists in the space between these two images above.
Watch the video below to see how my latest was created:
A MOTHER’S PRIDE
In February 2026, driving near Tawana Lodge in the Okavango Delta, we encountered a lioness guiding her four cubs along a sandy track — moving with calm authority, patiently waiting for the little ones before leading them toward her recent kill. She demanded to be painted.
A Mother’s Pride, 102cm × 126cm, Acrylic and Gel on Canvas, 2026
Watch the video below to see how this painting was created:
ANCIENT MEMORY
I visited Kubu Island once, in 1996. I have not been back.
I don’t need to. Some places mark you so completely that returning would only risk disturbing the memory.
Kubu Island rises impossibly from the edge of the Makgadikgadi — the world’s largest salt pan — a sacred granite outcrop covered in ancient boulders and baobab trees that were old before any living person’s great-great-grandparents were born. The San people considered it holy. Standing there, you understand immediately why.
Ancient Memory is painted from that 30-year-old impression — the weight of the rocks, the alien silence, the copper baobab reaching above the stone ridge against a sky so saturated it feels like a signal from somewhere deeper than atmosphere. The rocks in the foreground took weeks. Each one holds its own shadow, its own history.
Some places exist outside of time. Kubu Island is one of them.
Ancient Memory, 80 × 120cm, acrylic on canvas, 2025 — available on Saatchi Art
MY SAATCHI ART GALLERY IS NOW LIVE
After years of painting from Boro, on the edge of the Okavango Delta — I have finally launched my presence on Saatchi Art, the world’s leading online gallery for original paintings. You can now browse and purchase my work directly, with international shipping available.
👉 View all available works at saatchiart.com/mbiorn
The collection spans wildlife, landscapes, cultural portraiture, and abstract work — from small accessible pieces to large-format statement paintings. All works are originals. Every sale supports Botho Corps Trust, the NGO offering a community school bus service and Youth Wellness Camps that my wife and I run in Boro village.
COMMISSIONS
I love working directly with collectors, lodges, and businesses to create something entirely specific to your space, palette, and vision. My most recent commission — Delta Matriarch (40cm × 40cm, acrylic, 2026) — was painted for local clients in Maun.
If you have a wall that needs a story, let’s talk.
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— M. Biorn | Biorn Fine Arts | Maun, Botswana
Copyright 2026
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