The Old Diocesan Issue 12 - Magazine - Page 80
EPIC ROCK ART
Each year, the many mixed activities of the Bishops Epic include
sessions led by Peter Hyslop that explore heritage, connectedness
and the rock paintings of the San. Now several years into retirement,
the former Master of Art at Bishops remains closely connected to
the school, to the Cederberg, and to a continuing sense of wonder
shaped by an ancient landscape, history and culture
W
ith my oil painting
titled Looking Over
An Ancient Landscape
(see opposite),
I sought to capture a memory from
2023 of two Bishops boys standing
at the northernmost edge of the
Cederberg, looking north towards
the Karoo Basin, the Tankwa Karoo
and the Great Escarpment. This
view is on the road to Calvinia and
76 | THE OLD DIOCESAN
is the starting point for an in-situ
programme I have been teaching
since 2017, titled “Heritage and
Connectedness”. Taking place as
part of the annual Bishops Epic
Grade 10 programme, it is run from
the Elizabethfontein base in the
Agter-Pakhuis, a place of significant
national heritage, rich in rock art.
The painting’s perspective,
looking towards the Great
Escarpment, which ascends
sharply up to the Great African
Plateau, conveys to the viewer a
sense of the vast interior of the
continent. Then, when he turns
to look in a southerly direction,
he takes in the Cape Fold Belt and
the Cederberg that the boys hike
through over the course of 16 days.
In 2019, I invited UCT emeritus
professor of geology John Compton
