The Artists Gallery in Bree Street will have its first exhibition of the year, titled WaterBeach.
The exhibition, from Friday February 9 to Tuesday February 20, is a collection of paintings from four artists that capture the essence of water in its many forms.
The artists have created a range of mediums and styles, including oil, and acrylic paintings as well as digitally created works.
One of the artists, Corne Theron, is a neo-optical artist, using pixels in her work.
“I am fascinated by the question ‘Why do we do the things that we do?’ I use water as a metaphor for this.”
She grew up in Worcester, but now lives in France. Growing up in a family of creative people, Corne believes that she was made to be an artist.
Ms Theron studied law and practised as a property attorney for two years before a health challenge led her to resign.
“I started writing a children’s book and tried to illustrate it. Then I discovered I loved the illustration part more than the writing, and I found an art class at Rust-en-Vrede gallery. This was the start of my career.”
For WaterBeach, she said she wanted to have a playful look at the way people interact with social media and their concepts of individualism.
“I used the theme of copying and following the ideas of others versus originality, as a base of inspiration.”
Another artist, Jamie Danielle Smith, said she enjoyed creating a collection for WaterBeach because greens and blues are her favourite colours and the theme is inspirational, with many happy memories connected to water and beaches.
Ms Smith was born in Zimbabwe, and moved to Camps Bay in 2000 due to politics in her home country. She now lives in Germany with her family.
She said she has always been creative, and her aunt, who was also her nursery school teacher, encouraged her art.
After being rejected at two art schools, Ms Smith went on to study Film and Social Anthropology at UCT. “Back then in my mind I was going to make or work on documentaries. I worked in the film industry for many years but actually never worked on any documentaries.”
After she became a mother, she didn’t go back to the “long, chaotic” hours of film production, and decided to take some time to figure out what she wanted do.
“Over the years, since university, painting was always there as a passionate hobby, stress-relieving exercise and activity I did in any free time that I had.
“Being a new mother it was the perfect pastime and soon our apartment was filled with paintings stacked up against the walls. It was then that I realised I wanted to paint full time.“
Ms Smith describes her work as abstract. “I have no subject in my paintings but use colour as a subject to create a world of intrigue and emotion… I don’t start with any plan, but rather allow the painting to happen.
With WaterBeach, she said she was eager to try a new painting process where she used a lot more water and thin mediums as usual. “Once the thin paint had dried it left interesting marks and beautiful patterns.”
She said all her pieces for the exhibition had positive connotations to water.
WaterBeach will be open to the public with free admission. The gallery is open on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 10am to 5pm, and Saturdays from Saturday from 10 am to 2pm.
The gallery is closed on Wednesdays and Sundays, and by appointment for groups or private gatherings.
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Dates: 9 February – 20 February 2024
Gallery Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 10 am – 5 pm Saturday 10 am – 2 pm. Closed Wednesday & Sunday and by appointment for groups or private gatherings.
Admission: Free and open to the public
