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1952 Born in
Pretoria, Republic of South Africa
1970 Matriculated at the Afrikaans Hoër Meisieskool Pretoria with
distinction in art
1971 – 1974 University of Pretoria BA Fine Arts Degree. Majoring
in Painting, Art history and Graphic Techniques. Worked under
major internationally acclaimed artists like Nico Roos, Eben van
der Merwe and Raymond Andrews. Finished with an honours degree in
painting.
1975 – 1978 Worked in London at the Chelsea School of Art under
the internationally acclaimed British Artist David Smith. He went
on the Royal Expedition with Prince Charles to the Arctic as Royal
Artist and worked on the top deck as to have a birds eye view, as
the ship broke the ice as they moved along very slowly. His large
canvasses of the ice breaking, had the most dominant influence on
my work and inspired me to do a series of large atmospheric
landscapes when I returned to SA. It’s the most direct influence
on my work (the cool pallet and no colors). I did not use any
silver at that stage. While in London I had two solo exhibitions
in 1976 and later in 1978 before returning to SA.
I only started developing my silver technique once back in SA. It
is a technique of layering and embossing with heavy textures. I
mainly focused on the human shape.
1979 Returned to Cape Town, RSA.
Attended various winter and summer schools at the University of
Cape Town and life drawing classes at the University of
Stellenbosch in the Cape.
Had six solo exhibitions at The Art Scene Gallery in Cape Town
over a period of 10 years
1980 In the early 1980’s I painted mainly landscapes large
canvases with a minimum of color atmospheric landscapes like
Turner.
Towards the end of 1985 my market was mostly the corporate market
in SA. I focused mostly on animal scenes and worked in my silver
technique. I painted elephants at a water hole (Sanlam
Investment), elephants in the dust (Namibia), elephants in the
desert (Gensec). I also sold paintings to Old Mutual and Hout Bay
Management as well as private collectors in Namibia.
1999 Started painting mainly animal scenes concentrating on
the Big Five.
2000 – 2002 Had various exhibitions in Cape Town. Bloemendal Wine
Estate bought a wild dog painting – a first in the silver
technique method. Exhibited at Durbanville Hills Wine Estate. Cape
Farmers Winery commissioned a painting of the black Rhino
(approximately 4m – 3m) for the Rhino fields launch.
2003 I had one man exhibitions at the Sembach Gallery in Hout Bay,
Resonance Art Gallery Waterfront, La Concorde Art Gallery
Franschhoek, Lindie van Niekerk Art Gallery Durbanville. Exhibited
in Pretoria in Kosmos Gallery Hartebeespoortdam as well as several
private galleries in Johannesburg and St Francis Bay Gallery in
the Eastern Cape. Since 2001 I have been showing my art at the
Sembach Gallery in Cape Town.
Did a series of murals in Vygeboom Manor Guesthouse in
Durbanville, Cape Town. The larger than life paintings of modern
French masters like Gaugan, Manet, Matisse and Valadon give the
Guesthouse an exotic warm feeling. Each room is named after the
artist. It is done in a realistic technique without any silver.
Animal studies
I started painting mainly the big five, since South Africa has
such a vast animal kingdom. From childhood I spent holidays in the
wild. My father is a great animal lover and has a very profound
knowledge of the animals and birds in SA.
Nowadays my husband and I spend a lot of time in the African Bush
and frequent game parks in Botswana, Zimbabwe and the local Game
Reserves in SA. I never sketch in the wild. I use a combination of
photographs and memory. From about 2003 I started simplifying the
shape of a single animal – like a portrait where the eye of the
animal becomes the focal point and the skin becomes an art work in
itself. I try to paint only the essence of the specific animal.
From 2006 I started combining the shape of the human form with the
shape of an elephant in the landscape.
The different genre of painting e.g. landscape, animal paintings
and figure studies form a unity working together where the silver
conjoin it.
Wild Dog series
Between 2001 and 2004 I painted a series of five Wild Dog
paintings that form part of private collections in America and
Canada. I tried to captivate the Wild dog spirit and agility as
well as the interaction between the animals. Each wild dog
painting is one of a kind. I used very little silver as the
colorful skin of the animal is decorative enough. Each painting
portrays the great energy of the animal frozen in time.
African Angels series
Leopard People : Private collection (Cape Town) 2003. I used the
decorative spots of the leopard like material and it becomes a
formal element in my work. I place the human figures covered in
leopard spots with abstract human-animal faces placed against a
plain background. It shows the interaction of man and beast in
Africa. To communicate you have to become one.
Elephant Series
I place my elephants against a typical African landscape, vast
open and desert like. I use the shape of the elephant head and
ears to repeat in the mountains on the horizon. This forms a
flowing rhythmic quality in my work. I use the horizontal lines of
the trunks to echo in the zebra skin that I sometimes use to cover
the human figure of an African female. I use the female figure as
symbol because the elephants come from a matriarchy where the
elephant cow stay in the family they are born in from birth till
they die. They nurture their numerous calves year after year. The
female shape portray the strong feminine spirit of the elephant. I
use color in these paintings to portray the warm African sun and
to form a contrast between background and animals. I frame these
paintings with indigenous wooden frames – heavy enough to carry
the painting sometimes 300mm wide.
The buffalo and elephant are the animals that I paint the most.
The buffalo paintings have very little silver and I do them as
portraits of one animal from a herd staring intensely at the
spectator. That instant when man and animal acknowledge one
another.
Between 1970 and 1974, I did experimental work at the Universal of
Pretoria, under Prof. Nico Roos in the Graphic department. We cut
out the silver etching plates and worked with a marbling
technique. Shalac (Black Japan) is poured onto water. The etching
plates are then placed face down in the water. The Shalac sticks
to the plate surface to form marble-like shapes. The plates are
then put into an acid bath to eat away between the black shapes,
thus forming the embossed surface. These plates were far more
interesting than the end product. This technique inspired me to
find a way to produce a silver replica on a much larger scale.
When I paint I seldom think in color. My pallet is monotone and
silver. I only use color to portray warmth and sunshine e.g.
Elephant landscape with figure.
In my figure paintings I use a usual limited pallet of burnt umber
and Phthalo blue to form a dark khaki brown. In the figures it is
the movement I want to capture. Silver is the most dominant
element in my work – it is stronger than white that is
traditionally used to paint light in a painting.
I am a post modern artist and the technique is the most dominant
feature in my work. I paint every day and I learn more about the
technique and how to control it, that it forms part of my painting
process without interfering with the creative process. The silver
functions as a formal element, a color, stronger than white in my
monotone pallet to enable me to express myself in a unique South
African expression.
I have sold paintings to private art collectors all over the globe
– Europe, America, Canada, Ireland, England, Far East Switzerland
as well as to the local market in South Africa. |
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