Timelines, deadlines and where did time go?

I realised on Saturday morning that it was the date for Facebook to change Pages to the new Timeline. I wanted to include work pre-Facebook on my Timeline then I discovered that much of what I had painted in the past remained undocumented.


Oddly, I have little to show for my years at Art School. I can’t recall my fellow students documenting their work either. Poverty most likely resulted in most works being painted over to save the cost of a new canvas!

One relic from that period is a colour wheel painted with extreme care in Gouache. It’s stood the test of time. The colours remain bright, perhaps because for many years it remained in a folder away from the light. It’s now on the pin board in my studio and used as a reference for my students. 

The most likely reason for the lack of photos was the hassle of print photography. We forget the decisions that had to be made - do you buy 12 or 24 or 36 exposures? How long would it take to be developed? Would the photos be any good?

I would always need to develop a photograph immediately, then waste the unexposed film or take many unnecessary photos to use up the roll. How much easier is the process today? A click and immediately the image is there. No excuse now for undocumented work. 

I have some images of two dominant series. For a number of years I belonged to the Miniature Art Society of South Africa and exhibited with them both in South Africa and in World Miniature Exhibitions. Creating miniature paintings became a passion for a number of years.

Fishing Boats,Western Cape - watercolour on paper 60mm x 70mm

Collection the artist

The Arch, Belgium - watercolour on paper 70mm x 60mm

Collection the artist

As well as working in traditional watercolour , I painted a series of watercolour collages. As a member of the Watercolour Society of South Africa, work was originally restricted to transparent watercolour on paper only. In 2011 the society was renamed  Watercolour Society Africa and an associate society was formed for artists in all media, the Art Society Africa (ASA).

Pink Cannas -  Watercolour collage - Private collection

Size approx 560mm x 760mm

If collage was used, it had to be painted watercolour paper. Today the criteria are much more flexible and allow for mixed media.I became fascinated with the layering of various weights of paper, using fine, delicate papers as well as heavily textured ones. 

Mushrooms - Watercolour collage  760mm x 560mm

Collection the artist

Garden Collage - detail - Watercolour collage

Private collection. Size of complete work: 800mm x 1200mm

Some parts of the paper were glued, others areas were left to stand away from the surface of the background, creating shadows. 

The painting, Garden Collage,(detail shown here) was a large watercolour collage. The flowers and leaves were painted on separate pieces of paper, cut out and then layered and glued on to a large sheet from a roll of watercolour paper - .76metres by 1.2 metres. Different weights of paper were used to create this dramatic work. Two smaller companion paintings were made to accompany this work: White Arums with Japanese Anemones and Lilies with Gladioli part of this album on my Facebook page.

Sometimes I painted the shadows and sometimes the shadows were real. When I look at this body of work I am inspired to re-visit the process, perhaps with a change of medium and incorporate this idea on canvas.