Alexandra Spyratos paints African wildlife in an unconventional style — hardly any of her animals are shown in their actual colours. She paints blue giraffes, pink wildebeest, coral ostrich and lavender-and-magenta cheetahs!

Spyratos, who grew up in Kenya and Tanzania, likes warm colours such as pink, orange and yellow. “Pink makes me feel good, and I love the colour when it is combined with orange,” she said.

The painting Tangle Tango is of blue giraffes facing in different directions, their necks forming a network of sapphire and navy blue on a khaki background. It is bold and captivating, with hues of the savannah and African skies.

Tusker Rose is the front view of a tan-coloured elephant, it’s face framed by wide open ears. The tusks, wrinkles and ears are painted in various shades of pink, colours seen in the early morning or late evening in the wilderness.

Her wildlife paintings portray lots of movement – zebras galloping, cheetahs racing, elephants walking purposefully and ostriches hurtling away. Spyratos likes to capture the “feeling” and movements of the animals she has observed in the wild for many years.

Another exotic aspect of her work is the use of pure gold, silver and copper. She applies the metals and paints different colours over them, giving her images a wonderfully glitzy sheen.

“I love the added dimension of a reflective medium,” said Spyratos, who has a studio in Malindi and another in Australia. “It catches the light, making the art change depending on the light and angle it’s viewed from.”

The challenge of working with pure metals is finding the right varnish and a glue that is non-toxic and water-based, but the end result are illustrations where the physical features and motions feel even more alive.

Naturally, pure metals add to the cost of the paintings. The investment has paid off as she counts personalities like James Cameron, writer of the movie Titanic, as one of her buyers.

Like the free-spirited style of her paintings, Spyratos is nomadic in nature and establishes a studio wherever in the world she happens to be. She will exhibit at the Affordable Art Show in Nairobi this month, and in South Africa in November.