Gladys 'Nomfanekiso' Mgudlandlu (1917-1979) is one of the foremost exponents of Expressionism in South Africa. As a school teacher, she taught by day and, at night, she painted by the flickering light of a paraffin lamp in her 'township' house in Cape Town, South Africa. She incorporated into her art the indigenous character and essence of Africa - the legends and folklore, as well as some of the mysticism characteristic of African rituals and customs. In this book, an overview of Mgudlandlu's work, art historian Elza Miles traces the development of this singular artist - from her early, meticulously detailed works, evoking the textural richness of embroideries and tapestries, of landscapes painted from memory and imagination, depicting idyllic rural lifestyles, and large mystical bird forms, to her later works depicting urban scenes and simplification of shapes, enlivened with broad sweeping brushstrokes of colour.