origins

For a few years, I lived in a landscape where I felt completely part of the land itself. I belonged to it, and it belonged to me. Kaapschehoop, a tiny mountain village perched high on the Mpumalanga escarpment, South Africa.

During my childhood, there were only a handful of people, and miles of untouched forest. Dirt roads, and no tourism.

Ancient quartzite formations, more than 2.5 billion years old and among the oldest exposed rocks on Earth, stood like silent guardians across the landscape.

To me, it was a place of endless wonder and quiet magic. Every path between the rocks felt like entering another world.

Long before I understood their age, I felt their presence.

Looking back, I realize it wasn't only the landscape that stayed with me – it was the way I felt there. That connection has never left me.

Every painting and every vessel begins by reconnecting with that part of me.

Before I understood art, I understood stillness.

Today I work across painting and sculptural clay, creating forms that hold quiet power. I am drawn to presence rather than spectacle, to restraint rather than excess. Whether I paint or build a vessel, I am searching for the same thing: stillness, balance, and a sense of belonging.

Clay allows me to slow down in a way that nothing else does. Every vessel and sculpture begins as a conversation with the material rather than an attempt to control it. I am interested in forms that feel ancient, yet alive, imperfect yet complete–objects that carry the quiet dignity of having been shaped by hand.

Painting asks different questions. Color becomes atmosphere rather than decoration. I wait for relationships to emerge slowly until the surface feels as though it has always existed

Ursula Schwartz is a South African–born artist based in West Palm Beach, Florida. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is held in private collections in the United States, Europe, and South Africa.

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