South African Artists

Sue Dickinson studied B A (Fine Arts) at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg from 1981 - 1983. After running her own graphic design studio and pursuing a career in the advertising industry, she elected to paint on a full-time basis in 1994.

Since that time, she has gained a reputation for her paintings celebrating Africa in all its many manifestations. Sue Dickinson became an "Associate Member" of the Watercolour Society of South Africa (AWSSA) in 1995. Recently, Sue was awarded membership of the Society of Animal Artists (SAA), based in New York, USA.

She has exhibited her work extensively in South Africa, including with galleries such as Gallery on the Square (Sandton), Everard Read Gallery (Johannesburg and Cape Town), Bourbon Street Gallery (Franschoek), and African Window Gallery (Pretoria) and has taken part in many group exhibitions. She has also exhibited in Italy, France and the USA.

Sue Dickinson's work appears on several South African postage stamps, including airmail tags commemorating the discovery of Thulamela, the world-famous archaeological site in the Kruger National Park. In 1998, another set of Sue's paintings, depicting "Early South African History" appeared on postage stamps, postcards and in a prestige booklet.

Sue Dickinson lives and works in Nelspruit, near the Kruger National Park. She spends a great deal of time carefully observing and recording Africa's rich diversity of fauna and flora. Her optimism about all things African is celebrated in paintings such as "Days of Miracle and Wonder", a painting which was a finalist in the Winsor & Newton Millennium Painting Competition.

The composition of Sue Dickinson's paintings is critical; based upon the law of proportion known as the "Golden Mean" - an aesthetic principle used by the ancient Greeks. Sue's focus is the animal itself. Sue's preferred painting medium is watercolour.

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South African Artist

Today I want to introduce you to South African artist Patrick Crumplin who was born in 1938 in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. He presently resides in the mother city of Cape Town which he moved to when he was 24 years old and were he predominantly paints in the mediums of water colour and oil pastel.

His subject matter varies from landscapes to entrances and door ways from his travels across the world. He has travelled extensively and this is demonstrated through his work and subject matter. He is presently concentrating on the mother city for his inspiration and drawing on its amazing energy. He has had major success with the subject matter of entrances and door ways.

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South African Artists

South African artist Wilma Cruise uses the body as the vehicle for the exploration of meaning. The body provides the metaphorical link between unconscious realities and the conscious known world. Her sculptures are rendered in expressive life-size figures in bronze and ceramic which in recent years have included animals such as horses and sheep. In collaboration with David Krut Arts Resource she has produced a body of work on paper that incorporates the figure, animals and text.

Recent works include The Dolly Suite. This suite of works includes installations and a series of mono-prints made in collaboration with David Krut Arts Resource and the commission Sheep May Safely Graze: the Return of the Bultfontein Sheep for the Oliewenhuis Museum in Bloemfontein. Another public work The Right to Life was installed at the Constitutional Court in 2004.

Cruise has had eleven one-person shows and curated several others. She has won awards including Architect's Project Award in 2000 for the Women's Monument at the Union Buildings, the Quarterly Vita Award in 1993 for Nicholas - October 1990 and the Lorenzo il Magnifico Award at the Biennale Internazionale Dell’arte Contemporanea, Florence.
Her work is represented in The South African National Gallery, the Corobrik Collection, the Pretoria Art Museum, The Durban Art Museum, the University of South Africa, MTN, the Billiton Collection, Standard Bank and the Constitutional Court.

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