Artist Statement

Blurring the Lines

I was a child during a time when being able to colour within the lines earned praise; and I was one of those children who could. An only child, I spent most of my time alone observing and drawing.

I am descended from a South African grandmother who made dress patterns with no education. She sewed high fashion including hats, for my mother. My German aunt was similarly talented and could make anything. Like them, I am good with my hands.

Arriving in art school, I was in for a shock. Our instructors were from the Abstract Expressionist movement and being able to colour within the lines no longer stood me in good stead.

I escaped into Printmaking - Intaglio. Etching into a metal plate took the edge off my need for accuracy. Printmaking’s time constraints didn’t work with raising a family, which encouraged me to explore the immediacy of soft pastels.

Moving to a seaside village fit my new medium. Grasses, shifting hues of ocean and sky, seasons unfurling, vernacular architecture was the world I sketched in the studio. I was held in pastels’ brilliant colour and smudgy grip for the next twenty-five years.

I finally came to terms with painting via my interest in the chemical colour of acrylic paint in abstract painting. I have come full circle it seems. My imagery remains representational, but I thrill to the feel of paint on the brush as it smooshes across the canvas. I care less about a message in my painting, the accuracy of my imagery, and more about the interaction of shapes and colours.

This freer way of making art is as absorbing, but in a less constrained way. The melting away of boundaries encourages experimentation, which keeps art fresh and alive for me to wrestle with.