Art that helps you escape with Grit Cammeratt
From clay work to painting, art, for this local artist has always been a way to escape reality even for brief time.
Grit Cammeratt’s love for the arts started off with years of her getting her hands dirty through clay as she would create unique sculptures.
Later on, as he jokingly admits, she’d come to realise that maybe getting into painting instead, was easier, what with its more instant satisfaction and all. “With clay work you have to get the clay right, build it up, let it dry, then let it stand then you fire it and you still treat it…it’s a long process.”
In the decades she has been creating art in different forms, she credits painting as being a permanent challenge to her. She said when she looks at the colour or the shape of something, she gets the inspiration to create something of her own. But, as a homemaker, its the challenge that life sometimes paints onto her that gets in the way of her artistic bursts. “At home I do not paint very much. But, when I am here, I get really dedicated to it.”
Read more: Fun with clay at Lillian Gray Art School
On this particular day she was working on a creating a misty grey forest that had the delicate accompaniment of white calla lillies. Through the class she has gained many tips and tricks to painting but most importantly she has come to greatly appreciate the encouragement that her art teacher, Noreen Beets, is seldom short of. As she is always there to say ‘oh that looks great’ and ‘keep going’ which keeps Cammeratt, and many like her believing in themselves.
Cammeratt uses oil paint for her art and she loves creating portraits as she has a keen interest in faces and she makes sure to express the feelings of her subject. Since she was a child she’s always had a fascination with drawing faces, “I do not just draw a pretty face for the sake of it, there must always be more to it,” she described. Her favourite paintings have been a few of these portraits.
She would encourage everyone to join an art class like this as it allows for a brief moment of escapism and to find ease in something refreshing.
Related article: Kia van Oerle reflects on the Freedom Charter Portrait exhibition
