vanessaberlein: Art in the Yard

Showing posts with label Art in the Yard. Show all posts

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Finding the thread...

The start of the year is always rocky for me as I grapple to move into a new year with new work, and find a path both exciting and challenging.
I ordered 2 large canvases - both 160x160cm and metal leafed them as I am wanton to do as the light play on the surface immediately comes to life and then I started to play...paint, pigment, glazes and eventually thread. I sent images out to the galleries I work with and the response was brilliant, and so I did a few more..
The inspiration for the works is an intense emotional response to certain music…ranging from Alt-J to Chet Baker to Kerouac’s collaborations with various Jazz musicians. The process of making the works is about taking a journey into my most private head/heart space, and expressing the beauty and the calm that exists there.

...and I began another portrait too...

Friday, October 28, 2016

Girl with the red pumps

I did this painting of Haidee Nel for the Franschhoek Art week end. It is being exhibited at AITY in Franschhoek.
Once again, oil on paper with gold leaf. The size is 140x180cm.

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Abstraction: apart & together

I have not posted in a while and much has happened. I went to London to take part in an exhibition titled: Cohesive Clash at the Tanya Baxter Gallery at the beginning of April along with a number of other South African artists. The exhibition was a great success, and 2 weeks in London brilliant! While I was there, I had a show open at Art in the Yard in Franschhoek, with Frans Smit, titled Abstraction: apart and together. Frans and I share a studio, and so were privy to one anothers processes and progress in creating work for the show. Our style of painting differs greatly. For the show, I was exploring colourfields - layering of oil glaze onto large canvases based with silver leaf, searching for depth and bounce and light. Frans explored the abstraction of realism within portraiture. However, our works together seemed to feed off eachother, and we also did 4 collaborative works, overworking our individual styles and techniques over and into each others works.
Below are my works for the show, each measuring 150x150cm. All oil on silver leaf on canvas. I am also attaching a link to the gallery website where you can view the collaborative works, and Frans Smits amazing portraits. artintheyard.co.za

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Lucent - A new Exhibition

                                                                    lu·cent (lo̅o̅′sənt)
                                                adj.
                                                   1. Giving off light; luminous.
                                                   2. Translucent; clear.
         [Latin lūcēns, lūcent-, present participle of lūcēre, to shine; see leuk- in Indo-European roots.]
                                                    lu′cen·cy n.
                                                    lu′cent·ly adv.

I met Francois Irvine on Valentines day 1986. It was our birthday, both of us, and so became also, the birthday of a brilliant, wonderful, astounding friendship.We were both doing a Fine Art Diploma at Durban Technicon in Kwa Zulu Natal, Francois majoring in printmaking, and I in painting.

Over the years we have remained brilliant friends and have shared many journeys.

Our most recent journey was creating work for our joint show "LUCENT". The title seemed apt for 2 reasons. The first because it speaks of luminocity, and that seems to be a great description of the relationship between us, and the second being that we both share a love of the effect and influence of light within and apon structure and form, and so in effect, our works are exploration of such.

Unfortunately, Francois broke his hand during the process of creating his work for the exhibition, and so will not be showing a complete body of work, but will have 3 works on show, and will exhibit the complete series later in the year.

Below are the works that I have on show along with sizes and mediums.

The Exhibition is taking place at Art in the Yard in Franschoek and opens on Saturday. The Literary Festival also takes place in Franschoek next week, so if you are in the area, please pop in!