Sonvanger – Suncatcher

image:woes.co.za

South African sunsets [African sunsets in general] are the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen. This next song’s title is Suncatcher – translated as it is an Afrikaans song – Sonvanger. –one of the most beautiful Afrikaans songs. I translated the song in 2008 – see lyrics at the bottom of this post – and Laurika Rauch [female singer in the video – also a household name in SA] was quite impressed with my translation, therefore I’m happy to post it here for you –

Suncatcher

See if you could catch me the sun
There’s a room in the house where it can be hung
It’s dark by the window in the middle of the day
Do you remember how brightly the room could laugh?

See if you could bring me the sun
There’s a song in the corridors the sun can sing
Coz it’s quiet in the corners, this cold season
Can you see what the wind and rain do to me?

Chorus
S-u-ncatcher!
I ask you, please, let it shine for me again
S-u-ncatcher!
Let me understand
How a summer disappear like that in the nothingness
And let it shine

See if you could get me the sun
There’s a home in my heart where the sun can live
See if you could steal me the sun
There’s a place in the garden where the sun can play

Chorus
S-u-ncatcher!
I ask you please, let it shine for me again
S-u-ncatcher!
Let me understand
How a summer could disappear like that in the nothingness
And let it shine

Bring some light for the meanders on my road
And a handful of rays for the darkness in my heart

~~~ Nikita…2008

This piece of art is called Die Sonvanger by Edward Baird – the picasaweb-link is at the bottom of the image – click for a larger view.

Ansie-Ans from devianart says her dad took this pic of her in Cape Town. A very beautiful picture!

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Brilliant art

An old school – An undiscovered gem: Gawie Cronje, South African landscape artist who lived in the Eastern Cape

I’m a big art lover and have blogged before some of our very best artists like Pierneef and Walter Battis, the creator of Fook Island, Bettie Cilliers-Barnard and Tretchikoff to name only a few. I must admit that until now, Gawie Cronje was really unknown to me. I found today babobski’s blog and was quite surprised to discover this piece of brilliant art.

The Brett Kebble art collection went on auction last week and raised R 54 million. Some artists’ paintings received record prices, which is quite amazing in this economic climate.

Yet, art experts have been saying for at least five years now that South African art is a good investment and should form part of a diversified portfolio.

Many people, when hearing about art and oil paintings tend to think about Van Gogh and Van Rijn. However, there are secondary art markets around the world and South Africa has a flourishing art market as well.

 Kebble’s collection included the big names in South African art. J.H. Pierneef, Alexis Preller, Irma Stern, Nita Spilhaus, Maud Sumner, Vladimir G. Tretchikoff, Jan Volschenk and Pieter Wenning were just some of the names Kebble had collected.

 One of the Irma Stern painting sold for R 5 013 000 at the auction, held in Johannesburg.

 His Pierneef sold for R 267 000 and a Jan Volschenk achieved a world record price of R 668 000.

 Not all of us have the resources of a Brett Kebble so how does one go about collecting art?

What could you buy with R 1 000 000?

 A good JH Pierneef or an Irma Stern if you lucky.

 What could I buy with R 100 000?

 Keep your eyes open for an Adriaan Boshoff or an Errol Boyley.  Boshoff is regarded as the finest South Afirican impressionist artist and a small Boshoff painting will cost around R 30 000 – R 35 000 at least.

Errol Boyely died in 2007 and his paintings are in demand.  The prices of his paintings seem to have settled down but will pick up again once the economy turns.

 What could I buy for R 10 000?

Click on the link for more reading and beautiful art on babobski’s blog.

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Have a bit of fun! – Create some graffiti online

Have a bit of fun by using the Graffiti Generator and create your own graffiti! I’ve chosen chess-words. On the 2nd and 3rd images I’ve written “skaak” which is the Afrikaans for “chess”. You will find all sorts of tools to enhance your own, you can even move the letters around – as you can see on the last two images, or you can lock some of the letters to enhance only others, like in my first image. Can you spot the letters I “locked”?  I used this site for my primary kids to explore graffiti as part of an art project while studying  Banksy’s art.  I hope you find it fun playing around with!
ClickHERE to create your own graffiti. Once you’re on the graffiti-site, you need to load a font- which is on the left bar- and then you start with your text.
On this link you will find a newspaper article about the Berlin-wall-graffiti and graffiti-images from the wall that went on  display in South Africa in 1990. The article is in Afrikaans, but you can view the images!  If you click on the article, you get taken to a list of images from the Berlin Wall. All links in this post will open in a new window.

Some of the Berlin-wall-graffiti-art which you will find on the above link.

Hier in London kry jy dele wat baie meer graffiti as ander dele het. Indien jy ‘n area wil beoordeel aan hoe “gegoed/swak” die area is, moet jy baie beslis kyk na die hoeveelheid  graffiti wat in die area voorkom. Areas waar daar meer graffiti as in ander areas is, is baie beslis minder-“gegoede” areas om te bly. Dus… kies jou area reg en jy sit nie met die “gemors” nie. 

About Banksy…

He is one of the art world’s most famous names –  whose graffiti works sell for hundreds of thousands to fans including Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

But for years the true identity of the artist Banksy has been a closely guarded secret, known to just a handful of friends.

Now a Mail on Sunday investigation has uncovered compelling evidence suggesting that the artist is former public schoolboy Robin Gunningham.

The notion that Banksy is Gunningham, 34, who was educated at the £9,240-a-year Bristol Cathedral School, will shock the artist’s fans, fond of their hero’s ‘anti-establishment’ stance.

Banksy has become renowned for his use of stencils to spray illegal images on public walls. Some councils and businesses have begun to protect his creations and his works have been sold to celebrities, including Jolie and Pitt.

Rumours have persisted that the artist is called Robin Banks, that he is from Bristol, and that his parents think he is a painter and decorator.

The only concrete clue until now has been a photograph taken in Jamaica four years ago of a man with a bag of spray cans by his feet.

Gunningham’s former school pal Scott Nurse said: ‘He was one of three people in my year who were extremely talented at art. I am not at all surprised if he is Banksy.’

Read the  article here and see more art of Banksy too.

 

Of course there is graffiti AND graffiti and on this image you can see what “AND graffiti” looks like. Councils in England have a huge problem with graffiti like this. Councils recognise graffiti has a negative impact on the environment, is illegal and is the most common type of property vandalism contributing to people’s fear of crime. View this image HERE.

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Inspirations

Danie de Wet

Painting celebrating African and European influences –2008

Danie de Wet

The Way (2005)

Oil on board

Roelof Rossouw

Blaauwklippen Estate from Jamestown

The Red Boat, Hout Bay

Roelof Rossouw

Walter Koch

“untitled”

His inspirations come from African Rock and Graffiti

Francois Krige…Blue Cranes (they are South Africa’s national bird)

I was sent this link earlier this week by a relative of mine. Her hubby is an artist and a very talented person when it comes to art and music and I’ve thought to blog a few artists from this site as I think that we have wonderful artists in South Africa and apart from that, we have such a beautiful country and I personally think that SA is a paradise for any artist. I’d wished many times that I was a natural artist. I want to sit down and start a drawing and after five minutes I want a master piece! But, unfortunately, I was at the end of the line when God handed out that gift! By looking at all these masterpieces then I’m really rubbish when it comes to art! although I’ve done some fabric painting, but that’s easy peasy…it’s like  colouring a picture with  paint! and I’ve done some Chinese painting….that’s painting on plates…even easier than fabric painting! ….nothing really difficult about that and you don’t even have to be an artist to do that! In my school in SA I used to do that with my gr3’s…and they did some wonderful paintings on small plates as a Mothers’ day-gift.  One of my gr3’s even taught her mum how to do it and they started a club at home painting plates as Christmas presents…so, you see, you don’t have to be an artist and I want to be one!! lol! The first two piece of art is from her hubby and the others are just some of the beautiful art which I like…the first one in particular reminded me about chess…if you know what I mean…the bottom half….and I do love any beautiful painting with boats…and it’s even better with a South African mountain on the background!! ….I know I will find more pieces of art which I will like by spending more time on the site…so, here’s the link for you to play around! Please click HERE for more South African artists and their art work.

Enjoy this piece of painted fabric… I might scan one more later…if you have your image transferred on your fabric…it’s….dead easy…almost like “colour-by-the-numbers”….
On THIS SITE you can view a gallery of art from many well-known artists of South African e.g. Maggie Laubscher, Walter Battis, W H Coetzer, etc. Francois Krige’s “Blue Cranes” is from this gallery…do enjoy!

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Leone’s Art

Leone and Pieter live in Aberystwyth and we met them here in London. Leone is a fantastic artist and some of her work can be seen in Embassies in some countries. I took two pictures – bear in mind that I’m not a professional photographer- but I think it is still good enough to admire and to share. The first two pictures are the two which I photographed and I found the others by a search on Yahoo….Links in this post will open in a new window.
We visited them in Wales and you can follow this link (and go down with the slider) to look at the pictures in Aber and read more about our visit there.

autumn-at-betws-y-coed-i

autumn-at-betws-y-coed-ii

Leone’s art of cows – in Wales

 

More of Leone’s beautiful art

 

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Paul Klee – more

See my y5/6’s art in the style of PAUL KLEE here..

Paul Klee

 

                                                 Temple of Gardens…

Paul Klee’s “The Great Chess Game”..

Finally, Paul Klee’s The Great Chess Game and Juan Gris’s Chess Pieces iconographically evoke the theme of artistic resourcefulness through the image of chess. Klee’s painting, rendered in the German Expressionist style, arranges the canvas into a kind of pattern or code of colored squares that take the form of a chessboard. This compositional system of squares recalls Kandinsky’s notion of a codified language of abstraction, especially when we consider how the runic pieces are cryptographically evocative of hidden meaning. These pieces seem to spell out an abstract game position that makes no real sense in terms of actual chess, but plenty of sense in terms of artistic pattern and compositional arrangement.
Source:
http://www.nettonet.org/Nettonet/101%20Painting/Studies/iconography.htm

 

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

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Tretchikoff

Tretchikoff is a South African artist, born in Russia, spent some of his childhood years in China and lived in Cape Town. He died in August 2006 in Cape Town.
I can remember, I was 11 years old and we were told by our teacher to prepare a speech about any artist. The first and best artist’s information I found – was in a household magazine, called Huisgenoot , was about Tretchikoff! I can remember I said a lot about him and there were pictures of women he painted…naked! … and a couple of flowery-ones in the magazine. Of course I didn’t show all those pictures in class to the children, but the teacher did look at it.

Report from the BBC:

It’s one of the most popular prints ever made and yet many art critics dismiss it as rubbish. The death of its creator Vladimir Tretchikoff has again cast the spotlight on the mysterious Green Lady. She looks unsmiling down and to her left. She has luxuriant black hair. Dressed in an exotic gold-collared robe, her hands are folded out of sight. So far, so unremarkable, except for her skin, a strange blue-green.In the 1960s and 70s, Chinese Girl – to give the 1950 portrait its proper title – graced many a living room wall across the globe.The Russian-born South African artist Tretchikoff toured the world on the back of his painting’s popularity. He generated controversy in interviews, exhibited his work in department stores and became one of the first artists to target the “ordinary” public as the true audience for his work.
BBC report:
Read the entire report HERE on the BBC’s news site….

On THIS LINK you can read the South African Broadcasting Company’s report about his death…there’s also a video report which you can watch with his granddaughter too speaking.
Vladimir Tretchikoff dies aged 92
August 26, 2006, 13:15
Vladimir Tretchikoff (92), a world renowned artist, has died at a frail care centre in Cape Town. Tretchikoff was a self-taught artist. He and his family fled the Russian Revolution in 1917, moving to Manchuria, Shanghai and Singapore, before eventually settling in South Africa in 1941. He is viewed by many as one of South Africa’s greatest artists. His most famous piece was the portrait titled Chinese Girl. Tretchikoff painted ultra-realistic portraits – many of women. His other subject matter included animals and flowers. He worked with oil and water paints, as well as in charcoal and other media

“Miss Wong”

Read HERE more about Tretchikoff on Wikipedia.
 
Weeping Rose

“Horse race” by Tretchikoff

 
Balinese Girl

Wild Horses Image: shop.vladimirtretchikoff.com

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Paul Klee

Click HERE for more of Paul Klee and in the style of Paul Klee HERE where you can see my Y5’s artwork done in 2007.
You can find MORE art of Paul Klee on this link.

 

Paul Klee: Temple of Gardens

Paul Klee…Summer Landscape –1924

Paul Klee — The Mosque in Hammamet

Klee: Red Balloon – 1922

Paul Klee…On a motif from a Hamamet

Paul Klee and Chess

Mrs P in the South 1924

 

image:poster.net

Paul Klee…”The domes”

 pc/ping

Paul Klee….Garden in St Germain 1914

Paul Klee  (December 18, 1879 – June 29, 1940) was a Swiss painter of German nationality. He was influenced by many different art styles in his work, including expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was a student of orientalism. He and his friend, the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, were also famous for teaching at the Bauhaus school of art and architecture.

Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee (near Bern), Switzerland, into a musical family—his father, Hans Klee, was a German music teacher at the Hofwil Teacher Seminar near Bern. Klee started young at both art and music. At age seven, he started playing the violin, and at age eight, he was given a box of chalk by his grandmother and was encouraged to draw frequently with it.[citation needed] Klee could have done either art or music as an adult; in his early years, he had wanted to be a musician, but he later decided on the visual arts during his teen years. He studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich with Heinrich Knirr and Franz von Stuck. After traveling to Italy and then back to Bern, he settled in Munich, where he met Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, and other avant-garde figures and became associated with Der Blaue Reiter. Here he met Bavarian pianist Lily Stumpf, whom he married; they had one son named Felix Paul.

In 1914, he visited Tunisia with August Macke and Louis Moilliet and was impressed by the quality of the light there, writing, “Colour has taken possession of me; no longer do I have to chase after it, I know that it has hold of me forever… Colour and I are one. I am a painter.” Klee also visited Italy (1901), and Egypt -1928- both of which greatly influenced his art. Klee was one of Die Blaue Vier (The Blue Four), with Kandinsky, Feininger, and Jawlensky; formed in 1923, they lectured and exhibited together in the USA in 1924. Klee influenced the work of other noted artists of the early 20th century including Belgian printmaker Rene Carcan.

Klee worked with many different types of media—oil paint, watercolor, ink, and more. He often combined them into one work. He has been variously associated with expressionism, cubism and surrealism, but his pictures are difficult to classify. They often have a fragile child-like quality to them and are usually on a small scale. They frequently allude to poetry, music and dreams and sometimes include words or musical notation. The later works are distinguished by spidery hieroglyph-like symbols which he famously described with, “A line is a dot going for a walk”. His better-known works include Southern (Tunisian) Gardens (1919), Ad Parnassum (1932), and Embrace (1939).

Following World War I, in which he painted camouflage on airplanes for the imperial German army, Klee taught at the Bauhaus, and from 1931 at the Düsseldorf Academy, before being denounced by the Nazi Party for producing “degenerate art” in 1933. The degenerate art exhibit catalogues had even called Klee’s work “the work of a sick mind.” Read more on this link…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Klee

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