South African Artists

South African artist Nicky Chovuchovu was born in Harare and is now resident in South Africa.
His Dad – Norman – is an accomplished artist and has been his lifelong source of inspiration. He grew up fascinated by him, watching him at work in his studio.

After a four year stint as a Commercial Artist and trying his hand in the Public Relations sector – he made the decision to leave the corporate world and become an artist full time.
Fascinated by Expressionist paintings – he began reading everything he could find on the Fauvist Movement. Although he prefers to talk about the lighter side of life – he realized that being ghetto born and raised - that this is what he must paint.

He sees himself as a poet who works with the brush on canvas - a Graphic Poet. He refers to his work as silent music.

Nicky Exhibited at Art in The Park 2006

Click here for more information about this South African artist

South African Artists

South African artist Lesley Charnock was born in 1952 and grew up in Cape Town, South Africa.

In 1972 Lesley Charnock studied Fine Art at the Cape Technicon under the tutelage of Herbert Coetzee. For many years she studied oil painting with the late Joe Osser at the Green Point Art Centre in Cape Town. In 1988 Lesley Charnock went to the Ruth Prowse School of Art in Cape Town and studied life drawing and oil painting with Ryno Swart.

Lesley Charnock is well known as an enthusiastic and inspirational art teacher. For many years she has taught drawing and painting. Many of her students have gone on to enjoy commercial success with their own work.

Lesley Charnock is regularly invited by various art societies as a guest artist to demonstrate painting. She has illustrated three popular children’s books.
For eight months of the year, Lesley Charnock runs one day workshops in portraiture, still life and landscape painting. She also takes groups of students on five day drawing & painting holidays to picturesque Cape country villages. Lesley Charnock has had solo exhibitions and taken part in many group exhibitions. Her work is sold through several top galleries in and around Cape Town and other centres in the Cape.
For more info about South African artist Lesley Charnock click here

South African Artists - John Campbell

Today I want to introduce you to the work of South African artists John Campbell.

John Campbell was born on 1 December 1946. His preferred media are Oil and Acrylic. As a 12 year old he won a first prize for his art from the South African Art Society.

He studied Fine Arts at Pretoria Technikon and also got his Pharmacy diploma from the same institution. He studied further under guidance of famous artists such as Walter Westbrook & Ben Bothma and teached art at the Kimberley Art Society.

South African Art and Artists

I have in the last month added many South African artists and international artists to the Arcy Art Artist Directory and I invite everbody to browse through the excellent work on display at the directory. I have also updated the upcoming exhibitions page for may, visit the South African art exhibitions page to plan your art viewing for May.

Todays featured South African artist is Retha Buitendach.

Retha Buitendach was born in Vereeniging in 1968 and matriculated in 1986. From 1987 to 1989 she studied B (Arch) and from 1990 to 1993 she studied and completed her BA (FA) degree at the University of Pretoria.

Retha Buitendach's artworks deals with nature in both its macrocosmic and microcosmic detail. The hidden interconnectedness of all living things is an important underlying theme, as is the chance connections between seemingly unrelated things or even words. Unusual and microscopic life-forms as well as those seen everyday are sometimes portrayed in unusual contexts, thereby inducing the onlooker to discover them anew. The human figure is seldom directly visible in her artworks, although man's presence is often implied. Man is shown to be unique in his ability to experience nature as a supremely beautiful artwork and to be unique in his ability to destroy it all. Retha Buitendach's work is both naturalistic and surrealistic, combining the recognisable with what the imagination can add to it.

South African Artists

This month we continue our series of featured South African artists listed on the South African artists directory of Arcy Art Original Oil Paintings.

Peter Binsbergen's art works speak vigorously for themselves. It is exactly through their strong visual impact that they convey their message or rather messages. What messages, could be asked. They are messages of both the past and the present, messages of struggle, messages of lost dreams and even messages of human brutality. But pay special attention to his generous use of symbols form the world of fauna and flora. What does that mean? It means life and freedom, since wild animals in their natural state roam freely. And trees, shrubs and flowers grow and bloom abundantly in freedom.

Movement and growth in freedom, that is a message which Binsbergen's fauna and flora convey to us. At the same time, however, he brings another threatening message, namely a message of destruction. Through human interference with wild life and plants, whether through the destruction of the gun, or careless methods of financial gain, we ran the risk of destroying our ecology. At a first glance, the symbols you see, appear disparate and confused. But seen against the vast spaces in which the artist situates them, we understand that they become mirror images of our lives. The ultimate messge is very clear: we live in our own personal space, we live in the space of our land and it is up to us to gather our treasures in form of symbols.
Peter Binsbergen in his art, combines intellectual and emotional qualities. This is the essence of a good work of art. One can look at a beautiful painting and may feel aestethically uplifted. However, after a while, the initial feeling of beauty may simply turn into boredom, because it lacks the stimulus of intellectual.

Binsbergen's works will never fail to excite and stimulate because they combine a strong visual impact with intellectual depths. To put it very shortly: to live with one of his works will constantly stimulate your thoughts and fantasies and provide you with much aesthetic pleasure.