© boshua Bohumil KOSTOHRYZ
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Dipl. Fine Art - Cape Technikon - Cape Town (ZA)
M.A. Art History - Frankfurt University (D) Dipl. Botanical Art, Society of Botanical Artists (UK) Member: Cercle Artistique Luxembourg (L) | Botanical Artist's Association of South Africa (ZA) | Filoli Artist Registry (USA) 'Art and the Environment' Featured May 2018 in London-based blog: Fabulous Fabsters www.fabulousfabsters.com/sally-arnold-art-environment/ |
An 8 minute interview by Gita Claassen from 2018
Best viewed at fast internet speed |
As an artist I am a light holder, reflecting what contemporary society is dealing with – significant imbalances in Nature, the destroyal of natural connections.*
Yet I did not set out to be an 'artist', and experienced conflict in positioning my gift of seeing the outer world differently. Artisanship, however, is a way of living and being in the world, engaging tactically and physically with it. This became my modus operandi.
The verdant slopes of the Eastern Cape's Amathola mountains and vast dry expanses of the Great Karoo were childhood inspirations urging me to draw, model and paint. Above our farm garden-oasis: a vast crystalline blue sky sometimes bursting with an indigo, cumulus-headed thunderstorm of spectacular drama. Dusty earth and shimmering skies - primal textures, scents and light.
Nature's forms and vibrating colours are my guides. Specifically the powerful sculptural qualities of a blossom or plant. Drawing attention to these exquisite metaphors for our own, transient, presence in the face of questionable human exploitation of nature. I focus on rare, often endangered flowers living on our planet, magnifying fascinating details of tiny blossoms. Aided by photographs, I portray these on canvas in translucent oil glazes or on paper in watercolour + powdery coloured pencil. I love thick, luxurious, handcrafted paper or fine linen canvas made in traditional mills. Using pure, organic materials, cured by natural drying processes, painted oil surfaces develop a wonderful, supple luminance which resists crackling. Varnishes are satin/matt or dammar/glossy.
My work is based on drawing, is slow and artisanal, uses the very best materials and strives for technical mastery. I care about beauty, detail and excellence.
As an ordinary person wanting to do extraordinary things, my artistic purpose is to develop a powerful body of work that leaves a lasting impact on all who view it - for its poetic commentary on the originality and sustainability of natural forms. Current drawings investigate the movement of plants and blossoms, rare inflorescences, and the ephemeral language of plants**
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*‘One way to conceive what artists do is to think that they are, in their own way, running advertising campaigns; not for anything expensive or usually even available for purchase, but for the many things that are at once of huge human importance and yet constantly in danger of being forgotten. In the early part of the twenty-first century for example, the English artist David Hockney ran a major advertising campaign for trees. At the start of the sixteenth century, the German painter Albrecht Dürer launched a comparable campaign around the value of grass.’
For the Love of Art : Alain de Botton on Art as Therapy, Sothebys, April 14, 2020
** ' ... flowers would become for us an expression in form of that which is most high, most sacred, and ultimately formless within ourselves. Flowers .... would become like messengers from another realm ...' A New Earth: Eckhart Tolle, 2005
Yet I did not set out to be an 'artist', and experienced conflict in positioning my gift of seeing the outer world differently. Artisanship, however, is a way of living and being in the world, engaging tactically and physically with it. This became my modus operandi.
The verdant slopes of the Eastern Cape's Amathola mountains and vast dry expanses of the Great Karoo were childhood inspirations urging me to draw, model and paint. Above our farm garden-oasis: a vast crystalline blue sky sometimes bursting with an indigo, cumulus-headed thunderstorm of spectacular drama. Dusty earth and shimmering skies - primal textures, scents and light.
Nature's forms and vibrating colours are my guides. Specifically the powerful sculptural qualities of a blossom or plant. Drawing attention to these exquisite metaphors for our own, transient, presence in the face of questionable human exploitation of nature. I focus on rare, often endangered flowers living on our planet, magnifying fascinating details of tiny blossoms. Aided by photographs, I portray these on canvas in translucent oil glazes or on paper in watercolour + powdery coloured pencil. I love thick, luxurious, handcrafted paper or fine linen canvas made in traditional mills. Using pure, organic materials, cured by natural drying processes, painted oil surfaces develop a wonderful, supple luminance which resists crackling. Varnishes are satin/matt or dammar/glossy.
My work is based on drawing, is slow and artisanal, uses the very best materials and strives for technical mastery. I care about beauty, detail and excellence.
As an ordinary person wanting to do extraordinary things, my artistic purpose is to develop a powerful body of work that leaves a lasting impact on all who view it - for its poetic commentary on the originality and sustainability of natural forms. Current drawings investigate the movement of plants and blossoms, rare inflorescences, and the ephemeral language of plants**
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*‘One way to conceive what artists do is to think that they are, in their own way, running advertising campaigns; not for anything expensive or usually even available for purchase, but for the many things that are at once of huge human importance and yet constantly in danger of being forgotten. In the early part of the twenty-first century for example, the English artist David Hockney ran a major advertising campaign for trees. At the start of the sixteenth century, the German painter Albrecht Dürer launched a comparable campaign around the value of grass.’
For the Love of Art : Alain de Botton on Art as Therapy, Sothebys, April 14, 2020
** ' ... flowers would become for us an expression in form of that which is most high, most sacred, and ultimately formless within ourselves. Flowers .... would become like messengers from another realm ...' A New Earth: Eckhart Tolle, 2005
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