I am a South African artist, fascinated by watercolour.
The medium is both simple and complex. The artist can carry all they need in a twak-sakkie and set up to paint in a minute. But applying colour and water to a page with a brush calls for patience, discipline and practice. And the product is somewhat unpredictable. Kind of like life. Watercolour introduces a mystery beyond the design, technique and control of the artist.
I work with watercolour in small adventures to create art for discerning collectors. I also make my work available as high resolution inkjet prints.
Watercolour is ideal for on-site painting. Before photography, expeditions would include a watercolourist in the team. I like that. I have collections of watercolours compiled over time from places I have visited. I also create watercolours in studio, from sketches and photos collected in the field.
Immediacy, unpredictability, competency required – what a great medium to explore form and detail in creation and design. This is the journey – the quest.
I started painting in watercolour in 1985 in Swakopmund, Namibia. Watercolour is the ideal medium for the harsh, subtle mystery of the Namib. But later I exchanged my palette of ochre, sienna and umber for the vast range of greens of The Cape.
A more detailed “About” statement
Watercolour calls on the artist to coordinate brush, colour, water and paper. All of this is a lot to control. But with practice we can learn to work with watercolour. It is a journey. I have chosen watercolour as a medium to appreciate creation.
Rivers, waves and waterfalls in constant motion. Curves in trees forming over decades as growing tips unfurl to reach for the light. Boulders taking shape through cataclysm and calm, in rock-slides, rivers and coastlines. Mountains taking form according to the dictates of geology and climate. Each creature created unique. Each person fearfully knit together and showing the wear of their journey through life.
Honouring creation means allowing time for each watercolour to unfold. I combine impressionism and detailed realism to paint what is there, allowing the watercolour to express something beyond the image, perhaps the fleeting glimpse of a longing.
I started painting in watercolour in 1985 in Swakopmund, Namibia. Earlier in the year, with a degree in Geology and a Masters in Applied Science, I had started work on an open-pit mine near Swakopmund.
One day a watercolour in a gallery window stopped me in my tracks. A fish eagle lifting a fish. Each pinion feather the single stroke of a brush. It was extraordinary! I met the artist and signed up for classes.
I remember mixing colours in a dinner plate, painting on paper taped to our breadboard, listening to “Autumn Leaves”. I remember the smell of the brewery over road. I recall cycling home through the dark, misty streets with the evening’s work in my pack.
Watercolour is the ideal medium for the harsh, subtle mystery of the Namib. But later I exchanged my palette of ochre, sienna and umber for the vast range of greens of The Fairest Cape. Raising a family and pursuing a corporate and later a consulting career I worked in watercolour in all the free time I could carve out.
Then, early in 2020, everything stopped. Community stopped, consulting stopped. Facilitating workshops, always a challenge is impossible online. As “two weeks to flatten the curve” extended past three months I realised we were in for a long haul. I laid a plan before God, contracted with Aura, my wife and turned my focus on Watercolour.”
My work begins in small adventures from which I create watercolours for discerning collectors.
There is something compelling about the immediacy of sitting on site to paint. Over the years these sketches record a history in watercolour of his favourite sites.
Much of the work though, is created in studio, from sketches and photos collected in the field. The challenge of creating carefully designed and executed large work carries its own allure. And results.
Exhibitions
- Swakopmund 1998: Solo Exhibition – Animus and Anima
- Somerset West 2001: Solo Exhibition – Small Adventures
- Somerset West 2005: Group Exhibition
- Lanzerac 2023: Solo Exhibition – Light is Sweet
- Lanzerac 2024: Solo Exhibition – Celebrating Heritage
Awards
- 2007: Western Cape Watercolour Group – Little Gems Exhibition – First Prize and Highly Recommended
- 2008: Western Cape Watercolour Group – Across the Palette – Judges Choice
- 2018: Western Cape Art Society – Annual Merit Exhibition: Best Watercolour
- 2024: South African Society of Artists – Annual Merit Exhibition: Best Watercolour
- 2024: Western Cape Art Society – Annual Merit Exhibition: Best Watercolour