Welcome to Come Hell or high water

It has been one of those days – perhaps names of posts are self-fulfilling! Well – I had already written this post yesterday and published it. I saw that my bookmark was not working and went to add it – something happened in WordPress at that moment and my whole post went missing – so Hell happened! True to the spirit of this blog however, I will try and rewrite it as before, though I doubt it will be quite the same.

Anyway here goes.

We have all known people in our lives for whom nothing seems to go right. They are the type to invest in the stock market when stocks are high, only to see them plunging they very next day. They may have scrimped and saved their whole lives to buy a house. Finally they manage to get enough together to put a deposit down. Unfortunately they buy when the market is high. They sadly watch as the value of their property goes steadily downhill over the next 5 or so years.

Now this discussion is not about finance but about the attitude that people like this can develop as a result of their bad luck. Most of the ones I know have become at best, cynical about life, at worst, bitter.

I could put myself in the former category. In my early twenties I had a run of bad luck – I was sharing a house with other students of my own age and our house was burgled at least 5 times in a period of 2 years. I had all my best jewellery stolen, a beautiful coat I had saved for over 3 months , my best quality clothes and boots. The thief had good taste! Our new Hifi system was also taken . My car was broken into and a radi0/tape was ripped out. To top it all we were not insured. In the course of the next two or so years, I seemed to be dogged by ill -luck. My boyfriend had an affair, and I had a beautiful guitar that I hadn’t even paid off stolen from the boot of my car.

I moved town and met my husband to be. The first years of our marriage were taken up with bearing and bringing up our two boys. We moved into a new house, full of hope and expectation of good things to come. Sadly when we moved into our new home, we did not realize that the neighborhood was about to undergo a complete overhaul. We had been attracted to it in the first place because there was a pretty little canal running alongside our road past the back of our property, and just around the corner from our new house, a stone castle turret peeped its head above the misty trees. I had already fallen in love with the street before I had even seen the house we were to buy. When I saw the name on its gate I knew we had come “home” – the name, “Selborne” was the name of the school my father had been Headmaster of in my old home town.

However, the next few years were somewhat of a nightmare as we had one burglary after another, due to increased building activity in the area, the value of property was static and we barely had enough funds to cover the bond. However we had learned our lesson from previous thefts and this time we were covered by Insurance.

At this time I was also suffering from Post-natal depression aggravated by a previous episode of reactive depression, and had to be medically treated. Psychotherapy helped me tremendously during this time as I began to see a pattern in the number and types of burglaries we had had. I joined a Philosophy group and began studying meditation seriously. I began to see that I needed to change my attitude to possessions and belongings. I began to give things away to charities – I gave clothing to various organizations and I became a much more giving person. I joined a choir and sang in old age homes for free. I read a lot of self-healing books and began to live much more consciously.

To cut a long story short, sometimes life can give you a few hard knocks before you get the message – in this case the message for me seemed to be – let go – money and possessions are not that important – be generous – share – nature is generous – emulate it! I began to look for abundance in Life and I found plenty – it was all around me. Fruit burst from buds in Summer, flowers grew where builders had previously flattened the flowerbeds. My own garden proved to be my inspiration at this time. I took up painting and painted my garden and those of my friends. I saw how abundant Nature is – always. And its recuperative powers are amazing. It recovers quickly even after severe abuse.

I really started appreciating how nature never lets you down – with a little bit of attention , some water and food it provided me with plenty of sustenance, both psychic and physical. I soon became a keen gardener – I planted fruit and nut trees and vegetables and it was good exercise too.

And I have come to realize that some things you can’t control – the weather, the state of the economy, the people in power, the type of people who visit your neighborhood. And accidents do happen. You can’t prevent them. You can however, control your attitude towards these things. Now when bad things happen I see them as opportunities for growth – perhaps try something different, get a handle on something I have been avoiding or not attending to, tweak that part of my psyche that needs tweaking. Re-write a blog post that mysteriously disappeared..even if it means the family eats a bit later than usual..

This blog is a challenge – come hell or high water I will remain positive, turn negatives into a positive – but I will make sure I am insured…..

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Come Hell or high water

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Karoo Landscapes and Rockscapes

Red Hill farm Karoo road

Rockscapes

These are oil paintings of the Karoo – a beautiful area in the heart of my homeland, South Africa. On a trip to Graaff Reinet, we stopped at a farm outside Oudtshoorn called “Red Hill Farm” which nestles in the eonite hills. I was inspired and spent a very interesting morning with my canvas anchored to the dusty road with rocks while I tried to capture the light falling on the wheat fields below. I felt like Monet must have felt when he set up his canvases in his garden! Cars passing by threw up dust from the dirt road onto the surface of my canvas – I left it there – it felt good, more authentic somehow.

The area around Graaff Reinet is a fascinating semi-desert region of the Karoo. To get there from the South, one drives through the Plains of Camdeboo which are sprinkled with aloe and cactuses and broken windmills – it has a strange eerie atmosphere. Graaff Reinet is a small town rich with history and ghosts! It boasts around 230 National monuments, the beautifully restored, early Victorian period Hotel, the Drostdy Hotel, some wonderful museums notably the Drostdy museum, and Art Galleries. I particularly liked the Pierneef museum, which houses some of the finest Pierneef oils.

The Dutch Reformed church which dominates the town square has one of the oldest, largest organs in the country.

The long main Boulevard evokes memories of a bygone age with its rows of tall cypresses.

Just an hour’s drive to the North takes one to Nieu Bethesda, a quaint country village, home to the renowned South African artist, Helen Martins, creator of the “Owl House”, whose garden is full of the amazing cement sculptures of life-like figures, created with the help of a local sculptor.

Finding a Market for your art on the Internet

I have been looking at Art sites for the past year, trying to find a good market for my work. As a beginner to art marketing it has been quite a steep learning curve. I randomly clicked on the first site I saw that was the top of the google search for “sell your art” – it happened to be a site called “yessy.com”.
They offered a 14 day free trial period, so I got my art uploaded. There is no restriction on the number of paintings you can upload so I went ahead. No problem there. I was pleased to see that my work was immediately visible on their network, flashing onto the screen almost immediately after I had uploaded it.
This does wonders for the ego so I was quite encouraged. Then I checked the number of images being hosted on the site – about 300,000! Nothing daunted, I decided I had nothing to lose.
When the 2 -week trial period was over I was offered a year’s subscription at about $36. I decided this was reasonable and signed up. Naturally I didn’t hear anything in months – no sales, not a peep. Then towards the end of the year, I finally got an email saying that I had a buyer for one of my paintings. You can imagine the thrill that gave me. After a fairly anxious week or so, the sale was confirmed, the painting dispatched and I was $1000 richer.
If you are patient and don’t have unrealistic expectations of great sales immediately, you can sell your work, and even get a decent price for it. I have heard that people have good success with Auction sites like E-bay as well. Fanartreview is a great way to get noticed, and a site like wetcanvas is good for networking and becoming known. Eyeoftheart approached me and offered me a free sign up as well.
The more sites you join the better chance you have of selling, although you must be consistent with your pricing – make sure that you put the same prices on your works on each site.
Personally though, I have found that to get real support for your art and to reach a wider audience other than fellow artists who are unlikely to buy your work, you need to get seen on social networking sites like StumbleUpon and Digg. These sites will bring traffic to your art and that is after all the only way to increase your chances of a sale.

Is Contemporary Art a good investment?

I often ask myself – is contemporary art a good investment?
“ In 2006, Christie’s sold $4.33 billion worth of art at auction (a 36% increase over the previous year) while Sotheby’s 2006 sales total stood at $3.66 billion. While Christie’s attributes it’s success to forgeing long term relationships with sellers, both Christie’s and Sotheby’s are benefiting from the growth in wealth creation globally.” This is an article taken from the website Fine Art management
Owning an original artwork can give one status. No-one can deny the thrill of investing in your first original artwork and receiving admiring praise from friends and family alike as you sit around your dining room table and gaze at the wonderful portrait glimmering in the romantic candlelight.
Apart from the aesthetic beauty it adds, who knows what that painting you bought from a little -known artist in the 80’s is worth today? Equally, there is also increasing interest in art as an investment class including how it behaves compared with financial assets, and what qualities in a work of art are likely to make an emerging artist stand the test of time. Of course, taste in art is personal – one man’s meat is another’s poison, and how is one to know that the work you have purchased will stand that test.
As a test I have conducted a little research of my own on an artist who was extremely popular in the 70’s – Sara Moon. Every second person ( certainly the students I knew) had a Sara Moon poster hanging in their digs. I was not a fan – I thought it was “kitsch” art with little value or appeal but I cannot deny that she was hugely popular. Though I was young then my instincts told me this was not “Art”.Some thirty years later, it seems my instincts were correct.
My search today revealed surprising results. First off, Sarah Moon turned out not be a female artist, but a publishing house under the name of Red Baron and then later, Verkerk/Scandecor, a poster and print house. When this house went up in flames most of the posters were destroyed. It seems that no -one has ever come up with an original work because of this and the general opinion is that any prints are only as valuable if they are framed and with the original reference number and date on the back. The opinion seems to be that you may get the value of the frame and not much more!
That said, if you are thinking of investing, you would be wise to invest in an oil painting, acrylic or maybe even a water-color or pastel. There is no doubt as to its originality in this case and it is bound to increase in value over time if it is well- looked after and behind glass if it a water-color.
As always, the question to ask yourself is not “Is this painting a good investment” but “Do I like this painting” or “Do I want to look at this painting more than watch TV ” -or- “Do I get a good feeling when I look at this painting?” Like a piece of music, a painting can touch your soul, make your heart sing, your eyes water, take you back to a place you once loved, or forward to one where you would like to be. For these reasons, or any other good ones you can think of – ” that portrait reminds me of my beloved friend” – whatever. These are the real reasons for buying art, not some silly popular reasons. Just because everybody else likes that artist and has him/her on their walls is no reason to rush out and buy a poster yourself.
Art is meant to be looked at, not locked away in some bank vault. Buy what you like – there is no better reason than that.

Pictures at an exhibition

Left:A river is like a road: oil/canvas/R2250

Below: Go with the flow: oil/canvas/R2250

Let the Games begin: oil/canvas/R2950
Posters of these works will be available soon.

All three accepted!

I am over the moon! All three of my paintings have been accepted for the exhibition! The months of hard work have finally paid off. I can’t explain that feeling of elation when my husband walked in and showed me the scores out of ten awarded by the judges- three straight 8’s!- its like getting three straight A’s at school – something I never managed to achieve. Well, here they are for your enjoyment. Now we have to wait till October before they are actually hung in the Hall at Kirstenbosch. More about that later.

At Last -Selection Day has dawned!

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Today is that day which comes around once a year and strikes trembling in the bones of certain artists in Cape Town. It has dawned – the day which some of us have been working our butts off for the past few months, agonising over subject choice, colour, medium, support, frame, oil or acrylic, watercolor or mixed media. Last night those of us who paint in oils have probably wasted half of our monthly electricity account trying frantically to dry our oils as- NO WET OILS WILL BE ACCEPTED!
It is the South African Society of Artist’s Selection Day. Every member (there are about 500 ) is allowed to submit 3 paintings. I could hardly sleep last night wondering who the judges were going to be, whether my somewhat eccentric art would be liked, how I would react if I got all 3 accepted, how I would react if I got 0 accepted. I wanted to get there well before the specified opening time – 9am for those with surnames A-M. As I hurriedly swallowed my muesli I realised that I had not pasted my name and painting details on the back of my 3 paintings! Panic as I tried to locate the glue – in my family things like glue, erasers and pens have legs – they see me coming and scuttle into their special little hiding places designed to create heart-palpitations and anxiety attacks. I finally found some cold glue, using a braai fork to prize through the congealed mess at the top of the funnel and squeezed some onto the back of the postage-stamp size label supplied by the Society. Of course it spread all over the label and half the kitchen table. Briefly wondering whether cold glue was acid free or not – if not it was too late anyway – the stuff was already seeping into the back of the painting by now – I scraped off the rest with my finger, wiped the residue on my new slacks (oops, too late!) and then realised I still hadn’t found a suitable title for one of the paintings.
Yesterday I phoned my husband, rudely interrupted his meeting on Nuclear energy and greeted him with no preamble: ” A river is like a road” – there was a brief stunned silence and then he said slowly (and, I imagined with a slight rolling of the eyes) and with just the merest trace of patronage, “mmmm, yes, that has quite a good ring to it..” I knew that was fine. I rang off, thought about the other painting which was about ballooning and river cruising in the Overberg (slightly fantastic idea, but not impossible…) I just couldn’t get a title. After about 5 minutes I rang him back : ” Go with the flow”. Again a small silence. If he had been a pipe -smoker I would have heard a little “phhpp” of the lips ………”…not as good as the first one, but not bad..” it would have to do.
I filled in the rest of the forms, reminding myself to get R20 selection fee.
Then, I put the paintings out of my mind and got on with the rest of the household chores, which mainly involved dodging flying plaster when walking past the bathroom which is being rebuilt. The builders are on the last stages of plastering the walls – they should really have finished already but we had a rainy week last week which put us back. The plumber told me I would have to grow about 30 centimeters if I was going to have a bathroom cabinet the size I had in mind which was 85 cms from floor level. I secretly thought – maybe for you, you little dwarf but I’m a lot taller than you. He proceeded to argue his point in that peculiar way plumbers have of putting their point over in as technical a way as possible in order to confuse those who have no interest in what pipes are made of or how long they have to be. (I call taps,”taps”- not “stop-cocks” for heavens’ sake!
Stifling a yawn, I listened as he explained, a bit rudely I thought, that as my basin was going to sit on top of the pedestal and not be sunken in, the lip of it would protrude too high up to make washing one’s face comfortable. I watched in horror as he grabbed a plastic bowl from my kitchen sink which I was filling with vegetable waste ( I am a home-compost-maker and enviro-freak) and demonstrated. He then thrust the bowl at me. Realising that plumbers are to be humoured at all costs if one doesn’t want ones carpets accidentally-on-purpose flooded, I suffered the indignity of trying not to “splash” rotting vegetable waste over my face. Sheepfaced and suitable chastened I had to admit he was right for a shortarse. (I didn’t say that part aloud)
Now I was faced with the trauma of relaying this dramatic piece of evidence to my husband. Why today? Today I am supposed to be meditating, relaxing in a spa, having my hair done while scores of handmaidens tailor my nails and feet….aaah alas it was not to be and then I realised my son was coming home for Varsity vac that afternoon, would probably be exhausted and hungry, my other son was having a friend to sleep-over and I had no food in the fridge.
Just another ordinary day.
Well, we got pizza, watched in shock while France got slagged by Argentina, saw South Africa’s chances of winning the world cup going ever more pear-shaped and went to bed.
The next morning-still no title for the 3rd painting. It suddenly came on the last swallow of muesli-”Let the Games begin!” What with the Rugby World cup starting, the Cape Town Stadium Big Guns arriving to assess the progress on the Greenpoint stadium, it seemed suddenly and singularly appropriate. Of course if the selectors (of the paintings not the Rugby teams!) were 90-year-old women with an interest in macrame and Baumalerei I had no chance in hell!
The drama of selection day did not end at the Church Hall either. I got there early, was surprised to find no queue, walked straight in and was out in 10 minutes. I then cheerily hummed my way into Long street where I visited my favourite bead store and then whizzed back home. When I got home I realised that I had left my carrier bag which I used to carry my paintings back at the Church somewhere outside the entrance. With my heart in my mouth I zoomed back to the Church, was relieved to find the bag still sitting on the patio, cellphone and purse with 300 credit cards still intact. Now I’m back home., looking forward to watching Australia play Japan. Should be fun!
The judges are busy choosing my 3 paintings as I write this. If they don’t I will personally bring them home and make them try washing their faces in my vegetable bowl…

Making creative use of old paintings.

Many artists say that the thing that most scares them is a blank, white canvas. I agree, it is certainly intimidating wondering how you’re going to extract a great work of art out of such a flat surface. Well – why not try this – take an old painting that you couldn’t resolve, or didn’t sell. read my article, opening colours and begin!
In my case it is cadmium orange. I squeeze a generous amount of it onto the canvas, spread the paint around like butter on toast and simply let rip. sometimes, figures or animals emerge out of the mess. I just let things happen, not imposing my will on the work, just relaxing and letting it happen. I call this way of working, “consciously unconscious”- it is a sort of instinctive approach and this is when I feel that I am “truly in the moment” as it were. In this state I am sometimes completely unaware of time passing, how hungry I am. It is a glorious state to be in. I sometimes need a bit of help from my musical muses, Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi – generally the Baroque composers work well to create this alpha brain wave state that is best fitted for focus and concentration. Gradually I begin to see definite shapes and forms emerging from the paint.
I have found that in my case the same forms will begin to reveal themselves – they are usually winged creatures- angels, Pegasus-type horses. I am always pleased and a little surprised – like being visited by old friends. if they appear I know that the painting is going to go well. These angelic forms do not last to the end of the painting – they beg to be painted out quite early on in the proceedings as if they don’t want to claim credit. So I oblige and with a somewhat crude stroke of the brush they are simply rendered invisible- just like that- swish – gone! I am often sad to see them go but I realise their task is done- they have come as guides, nothing more, nothing less – they are often replaced by animal symbols and images which are nonetheless powerful. It is always the same creatures that grace the canvas at this point – buck, horses, giraffes, the occasional elephant. I seldom see lions or small rodents. Less often there will be cats or dogs, but most often it is wildlife – I see these as signs or archetypal imagery which will lead me to the eventual core-meaning of the painting. At this point it is a bit like what I imagine an archeologist’s work to involve – digging for truth. What to discard and what to keep are crucial decisions.
it is at this point in the painting that I may reach a difficult time- I sometimes become despondent, feelings of inadequacy assail me – I think I have no talent, I can’t express what I feel inside – all these things. Here is where I have a great support in my family – my husband and two boys cheer me up with silly jokes . I present them with the painting and ask them what they see in it. We often end up rolling on the floor with the ridiculous answers they give and the absolutely crazy imagery they make up. Now I have the courage to clarify the imagery, have a look at the ideas they have come up with and work with some of them.

At one time I was working on a painting which I eventually called, “The Wedding”. (see picture inserted) The initial inspiration for this painting came from the news that a dear friend of mine was getting married for the first time at the age of 46. I immediately began a painting in her honour.
I painted the happy couple sliding down a “foefie slide” over a river. While I was painting I saw in an unresolved area in the middle of the painting a pair of giraffes with their necks intertwined. At the time I was listening to the radio. There was a discussion going on about how Louis Eiffel, the designer of the Eiffel Tower in Paris had gotten his inspiration. Believe it or not, it was from the form of a giraffe he had seen while on a tour to Africa! That was it! I painted in the giraffes, one blue, one classic African – turned their legs into the struts of the Eiffel tower and resolved the problem. They became a symbol of the love between my friend and her fiancee. I realised that I had inadvertently painted the man a darker shade than the woman. In South Africa they would be termed a “mixed couple” – I emphasised this, letting it be a symbol of unity between dark and light, black and white, European and African. In Africa especially North Africa there is a lot of French influence – I thought it was apt that I reflect that in my painting – the marriage between the European and the African..
Various other images appeared to place the painting in its context – Table Mountain in the background. A small city began to take shape at the foot of the Tower- even a Bergie appeared beneath the bridge with an empty wine bottle next to him! A wheatfield appeared – a symbol of wealth and prosperity. The radio announcer was talking about the parlous state of western Province Politics – the infighting amongst the political parties – I painted a circus in the wheatfield with the animals looking on in perplexed amazement.
I found I had a lot of trouble with the foreground – it was a vast blue area. Now I began to work a little more consciously – realising that to maintain a degree of interest I would have to create a strong contrast with the wheatfield. I painted the area a deep purple, then adding some cool ultramarine blue. I realised that it could be the sea, so I worked more with that idea, adding fishes and a dolphin- like shape.
This painting was great fun to create – giving me as much pleasure as I hoped the viewer would get. I entered it into the South African Society of Artist’s annual exhibition where it was accepted. My greatest compliment came from a ninety-year old lady who told me it was the best painting she had seen on show and she had gotten great joy from looking at it.
The next year it was sold to a German lady in Munich. I hope she is enjoying it to this day!