I realised on Saturday morning that it was the date for Facebook
to change Pages to the new Timeline. I wanted to include work pre-Facebook on
my Timeline then I discovered that much of what I had painted in the past remained
undocumented.
Oddly, I have little to show for my years at Art School. I can’t recall my fellow students documenting their work either. Poverty most likely resulted in most works being painted over to save the cost of a new canvas!
Oddly, I have little to show for my years at Art School. I can’t recall my fellow students documenting their work either. Poverty most likely resulted in most works being painted over to save the cost of a new canvas!
One relic from that period is a colour wheel painted with
extreme care in Gouache. It’s stood the test of time. The colours remain bright,
perhaps because for many years it remained in a folder away from the light.
It’s now on the pin board in my studio and used as a reference for my students.
The most likely reason for the lack of photos was the hassle of
print photography. We forget the decisions that had to be made - do you buy 12
or 24 or 36 exposures? How long would it take to be developed? Would the photos be any good?
I would always need to develop a photograph immediately,
then waste the unexposed film or take many unnecessary photos to use up the
roll. How much easier is the process today? A click and immediately the image
is there. No excuse now for undocumented work.
I have some images of two dominant series. For a number of
years I belonged to the Miniature Art Society of South Africa and exhibited with
them both in South Africa and in World Miniature Exhibitions. Creating
miniature paintings became a passion for a number of years.
Fishing Boats,Western Cape - watercolour on paper 60mm x 70mm
Collection the artist
The Arch, Belgium - watercolour on paper 70mm x 60mm
Collection the artist
As well as working in traditional watercolour , I painted a series of watercolour collages.
As a member of the Watercolour Society of South Africa, work was originally
restricted to transparent watercolour on paper only. In 2011 the society was
renamed Watercolour Society Africa and an associate society was
formed for artists in all media, the Art Society Africa (ASA).
Pink Cannas - Watercolour collage - Private collection
Size approx 560mm x 760mm
If collage was used, it had to be painted watercolour paper.
Today the criteria are much more flexible and allow for mixed media.I became fascinated with the layering of various weights of
paper, using fine, delicate papers as well as heavily textured ones.
Mushrooms - Watercolour collage 760mm x 560mm
Collection the artist
Garden Collage - detail - Watercolour collage
Private collection. Size of complete work: 800mm x 1200mm
Some parts
of the paper were glued, others areas were left to stand away from the surface
of the background, creating shadows.
The
painting, Garden Collage,(detail shown here) was a large watercolour collage. The flowers and
leaves were painted on separate pieces of paper, cut out and then layered and
glued on to a large sheet from a roll of watercolour paper - .76metres by 1.2
metres. Different weights of paper were used to create this dramatic work. Two smaller
companion paintings were made to accompany this work: White Arums with Japanese
Anemones and Lilies with Gladioli part of this album on my Facebook page.
Sometimes I painted the shadows and
sometimes the shadows were real. When I look at this body of work I am inspired
to re-visit the process, perhaps with a change of medium and incorporate this
idea on canvas.
