The lightning shot its brilliant fingers earthwards, lighting the whole sky as far as I could see.
Suddenly heaven opened its chest and roared with all its might; trees bent their boughs from side to side, threatening all nesting birds protecting their chicks while holding on tight to their well-constructed nests.
The rain, tears from heaven, then drenched our gardens, bringing new life to our thirsty land. A painting in words!
This morning calm reigns once more, which brings me to a calm, serene, beautiful painting by an equally gentle and beautiful woman artist Nellien Brewer of Pretoria.
It is always a pleasure to hang one of her paintings in an area where one needs to throw off the day’s hectic interplays, to let go of the humdrum of our busy lives, to sit back and take in the serenity of the gentle soft lines of the flowers, the quiet blending of the colours and the reflections of the early morning sun peeping through the window.
The artist’s comments on her painting included here are as follows:
“I was fascinated by the play of light on the white lilies and the burglar bars. Burglar bars are there to protect us from violence, but in this image they become a decorative addition to the floral beauty.”
Her words have deep meaning.
I am not well enough equipped to analyse her phrase exactly, but she is referring to the gentleness of the lilies and usual harshness of the burglar bars, reminding us of the violation and violence in our beautiful country.
However, she turns it around to become something quite different.
The burglar bars are no longer an element of security, they now enter a different scenario completely, becoming a decorative detail which would not only lend itself to a particular era of interior decorating, but in this case a tool for the artist to use in her artwork, as something adding to the beauty of the floral arrangement.
When an artist puts thought into her artwork, it is immediately evident as it exudes an ambiance.
Before I became an artist I observed people standing before an artwork in a gallery, eyes half closed, carefully taking in each section of the artwork.
I thought there was something amiss with the painting and, when they began discussing it, suggesting the artist’s meaning by lines running across an abstract painting, or light coming through a window hitting an object depicted in the room, I was sure their next step was Sterkfontein Mental Hospital.
It goes to show what a little education in the arts can do for a person, and this can be gained simply by reading books preferably written by artists explaining the feelings and intentions of the artist.
I now bow in admiration to the artist and the viewer for giving our paintings much more than just images and colour, but also content, context and genuine feeling.
