Eight talented women, mostly stay at home moms and wives from the area who met at art classes and became good friends, have just presented a highly successful Ladies @ Art exhibition at the Carribean Beach Clubhouse.
The artists, Jeanne McLaren, Helen Alpino, Sandra Gerber, Rina Botha, Petronella van der Walt, Arina Swanepoel, Ulanda de Villiers (who paints as Violet) and Riekie Janse van Rensburg stunned everyone with their uniqueness, flair and extraordinary talents. Every piece submitted seemed to have captured a piece of the artists and it was clear that the had put in their whole hearts and souls in the creation of their works of art.
Rina was the one who persuaded her friends to join hands and put their work on exhibition. All felt that the time had arrived for them to introduce themselves to the public and to hopefully start building on their future as artists. According to Rina everything fell into place from the word go. The women all agree that they would never have been able to reach this point if it had not been for the loving support of their husbands and families. They also praised Pieter Haarhoff, owner of Creative Art & Framing for lending them a number of easels on which their work was displayed.
Petronella, who loves oil painting, has a passion for people and finds something unique and remarka-ble in every one she meets. She exhibited a number of paintings from her Innocent Children of Africa collection.
Arina grew up on a farm where she could relate to the beauty of the natural environment. “Natural, warm colours inspires me and it tells emotional stories,” she said.
Riekie is inspired by colour, love, life and people and says she loves to paint. “I enjoy myself thoroughly and love to give enjoyment to others through my art,” she said.
Violet says her work is painted with her heart and soul and each has a special message. She says it is a privilege for her to be able to create and use her work to honour her Maker and to ‘beautify that which is already beautiful.’
Jeanne, a close friend of one of the local artists, lives in Faerie Glen and prefers to work in the oil medium as she loves the boldness of colour and working with the palet knife. She says she paints purely because it makes her happy. The artist exhibited at the Pretoria Art Asso-ciation in February this year as part of the (re)inventing Van Eyck exhibition. The exhibition then moved to Potchef-stroom where her painting was sold.
Helen Alpino says she is a child of Africa with Mediter-ranean roots. “My numerous travels abroad enriched my life and influenced my work. I see art as my passion and do not wish to catego-rize my work, as this limits one’s work. The classes that I have attended with Anne Jooste have provided me with the beginning of a whole new wonderful world, to express my creative abilities and also a platform to interact with other artists. “I love pain-ting in oils due to the fact that as an artist I can creatively mould, move, blend the sub-ject which I am crea-ting. I love painting people who are a part of my world and with their colourful perso-nalities have touched my life. As we say in Greek ‘ena kommati tis psyche’s mou’ which means a piece of my soul is in every piece which I create,” Helen said.
Sandra, a resident of Westlake Country Estate has partici-pated in several group exhibitions in the Hartbeespoort-area and also dis-played her work at the Pretoria Art Asso-ciation’s exhibition. Her work ranges mostly from still-life to figurative painting with an emphasis on light and dark transitional zones and creating mood. Her painting process is slow and meticulous and the artist has described the act of painting as medita-tive. She received tutoring from artist and lecturer Johan Conradie for a number of years.
“After a ten year journey as a Health and Beauty therapist and business owner; the choice came easy to become a stay-at-home mom, with the birth of our first baby. During this time, my almost forgotten love and talent to express myself through art re-surfaced, and what a great journey,” Rina said and added that she believed that her involvement with other talented artists opened her eyes to the idea of giving exposure to people such as herself who would like to enjoy their talent, whilst receiving an income.
“This expo deve-loped into a reality; and will continue to give exposure on a quarterly basis,” she said.
Contact Rina 082 801 0646 for information about the expo.
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