South African Art / Oil Paintings

Last week I received an email which was suspicious and most likely an attempt at fraud. It was the second email of this kind I received in the last couple of months and it prompted me to write an article about some ways in which artists are targeted over the internet and what you can do to protect yourself against them. I advise all artists who are selling their work online to read this article and also to do some research on their own to make sure they are aware of the methods used by criminals to defraud artists. Click here to read more about this.

I have been hard at work adding artists to our directory of South African artists and we have close to fifty artists listed and are in the process of adding many more. If you are a South African artists and would like to be part of this directory please complete our application form.

I have not started work on a new painting but will be working on my figure drawing for the next couple of weeks. I am looking to gain a better understanding of the human figure and will be studying the human skeletal and muscular structure in order to enhance my figure drawing skills.

Arcy Art Original Oil Paintings

I finally completed the oil painting that I have been working on for a while. Originally I started out with the idea of making this painting as a part of the 'Dust to Dust' series of paintings. The oil painting developed in a slightly different direction and I decided that the final result did not fit in with the other two 'Dust to Dust' series of paintings. For me the oil painting developed around the them of the cycle of life through birth and death and I decided to name the painting 'The Circle of Birth'.
The main element of the oil painting is the female figure enveloped and formed by strokes of oil paint which was inspired by an image of supernova debris filaments as captured by the Hubble Telescope. The figure can be read as formed by the brush strokes or can be read as disappearing into the brush strokes enforcing the theme of birth and death. The rest of the composition is filled with symbolism with images of a leafless tree, an empty seedpod and an empty cocoon further emphasising the overall theme of regeneration and degeneration.

Arcy Art Original Oil Paintings and South African Art

The past week I added some more historical South African artists to the Arcy Art Original Oil Paintings art history section. Some of the new historical South African artists included are Iris Ampenberger, Stefan Ampoenberger, John Amshewitz, Nils Andersen, DC Boonzaier, Sydney Carter, Willem Coetzer, Leng Dixon, Pranas Domsaitis, John Dronsfield and Enslin Du Plessis.

This week I will continue working on adding new historical South African artists and I will also be adding contemporary South African artists to the artist directory of Arcy Art Original Oil Paintings. I did not get time to work much on my latest oil painting last week and I am hoping to be able to spend more time on completing the oil painting this week.

The South African art exhibitions section has been updated and there is plenty of good exhibitions opening this month. Because of my interest in painting I am especially excited about the Robert Hodgins exhibition opening the 17 March at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg.