Save The Date
18th–22nd February 2027 | Mount Nelson Hotel, Cape Town.
“I have always been inspired by my childhood memories and my birthplace, then Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. I remember family fishing trips for bream and tiger fish on Lake Kariba, always fearful of hippos upturning the boats and monster crocodiles lurking in the water! I remember listening to the haunting cry of the fish eagle, watching elephants swim through deep water with their trunks raised like snorkels, palm silhouettes against brilliant orange sunsets, and magnificent herds of buffalo and sable antelope.
As children, we collected lucky beans and played hockey using oranges as balls. Around the fire, we listened to stories of lion hunts and read about the great explorers of Africa. I was fascinated at how Henry Morton Stanley meeting David Livingstone at Ujiji and the famous words, “Dr Livingstone, I presume?” I would imagine what those early journeys must have been like, travelling through such a vast wilderness with the knowledge and guidance of local scouts.
Livingstone’s encounter with Victoria Falls in 1855 captured my imagination. His words describing scenes so beautiful they must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight spoke to the wonder of a place that, to European eyes, seemed almost unimaginable.
The romantic watercolours of Thomas Baines are some of my all-time favourites. They capture the wilderness as wild and untamed, not as a camera might record it, but through the romantic eye of an artist. On my first visit to the mighty Victoria Falls, also known as Mosi-oa-Tunya, “The Smoke That Thunders”, I was left dazed and bewitched by its magnitude, the force of nature and the sheer power of the water. Three trumpeter hornbills flew above the Falls, and I marvelled at their bravery, freedom and ability to simply soar above it all.
The rainforest surrounding the Falls is a botanist’s delight, a lush tropical hothouse filled with misty spray, twisted vines and extraordinary flora. Flame lilies, Zimbabwe’s national flower, bloom alongside brilliant Scadoxus, while the forest provides a home for the rare Angolan pitta and small shy antelope. It is a true Garden of Eden.
In 1987, I created a large ceramic mural of Victoria Falls that won me the Corona del Mar Young Artists Award and set me on my path as an artist. That work would later become a catalyst for one of Ardmore’s enduring themes: the extraordinary fauna and flora of Africa and the stories held within its landscapes.
In many ways, it feels like coming home, to a landscape of childhood memories, imagination and wild beauty that has inspired my work, and Ardmore, from the very beginning.” – Fée Halsted
In 2027, Ardmore returns to this magnificent river and the Falls for inspiration. We look again to the beauty and power of the Zambezi, as well as the evocative watercolours of Baines, interpreting this remarkable landscape through a new generation of Ardmore design.
Join us for Design Talks: 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st February at 11am
