Tamasa Gallery is pleased to present

^{Pangolins and Proteas}

^{an exhibition by}

SIOBHÁN O’REAGAIN BAKER

ARTIST STATEMENT SIOBHÁN O’REAGAIN BAKER

I was privileged to spend my childhood growing up in the original farmhouse of the old Wentworth Farm owned by my grandparent’s. It was a place of magic, with hidden corners in the garden I could explore, where I watched butterflies hover and lift their delicate wings in flight, some transparent enough to reveal the veins highlighted in the sun. It was the magic of this translucency of light through leaves, the tactile surface of roots and stems, the tiny hairs catching shafts of light; the glimpse of fruit bats hidden furtively in the leaves of banana trees in the orchard; and the myriad of birds in the red pepper tree which stoked my imagination. In an era when “Children should be seen and not heard” no one seemed to notice my absence.

I drew every plant I could find; every insect sparked my curiosity; the emperor locusts with their brightly coloured wings; Bagworms hanging from branches, monkeys jumping through trees, dassies running off to their burrows; all this formed the rich tapestry of fascination with the world around me and which still persists to this day.

It was a trip to the ‘Berg’ at the age of nine which saw my first tentative sculptures made of muddy river clay when curious to see what they were doing, I struck up an impromptu friendship with children playing on the rivers’ edge. With them I made cows and horses, and brought them home and tried to fire them on the old coal stove in the scullery. They eventually dried out and broke.

It was my first art teacher Bess Galgut who picked up the threads. She was a sculptor who nurtured and stimulated my imagination even though with her I did painting. It was watching her form armatures and make things out of clay to bronze that captured my soul.
And then, I read “The Agony and the Ecstasy” the story of Michelangelo by Irving Stone and my dream was to go to Italy and sculpt out the of the same marvellous pink Carrara Marble as he did. I have still to get there but the dream remains. My granny’s love of china and her beautiful teacups translucent in the light as the tea went down revealing as it did so the shadow of her fingers, were and still are a definite influence in my love of all things beautiful.

I am fascinated by dance and movement. For me, my botanic drawings must “dance” in the same way that my fashion photography once sought to capture movement on the other side of the camera, my sculptures must “dance” caught in movement, captured forever in the essence of time.

Tamasa Gallery is pleased to present

“Travel With Me En Plein Air “ an exhibition by Ana Pereira de Vlieg

Artist’s statement:

“As a Plein Air painter traversing the diverse landscapes of Africa, from the vibrant coastal cities to the tranquil vastness of the desert, I am captivated by the ever-changing interplay of light and the ethereal dance of skylines. Each stroke of my brush serves as a testament to the rich tapestry of nature’s hues and the subtle nuances of atmosphere.

In courage I stepped out to embrace the creative freedom that the landscape of Africa offers.
Travel with me from the desert to the sea “

Exhibition by Isabelle Leclézio

Tamasa Gallery is proud to present Ode To Nature , an exhibition by Isabelle Leclézio

Artist’s statement:

“Nature has always been my source of inspiration and my anchor. I use mix media, and have a direct approach to my work, trying to capture the essence of the landscape I have a strong connection to. I like to pause, and take time to appreciate everything around me, and celebrate these intimate moments.”

Exhibition by Cheryl Penn

Tamasa Gallery is proud to present The Daily Round  an exhibition by celebrated artist Cheryl Penn

Artist’s statement:

‘As a process based, trans-disciplinary artist, I needed to find a way to marry all the mediums I work in. Books, text, paintings, visual poetry, poetry, asemic writing, research, mail art, palimpsests etc: this body of work is the locus where I have currently recorded all my interests, penned my thoughts, kept a diary, placed private musings into the public space and combined an interest in everything into one compulsive, obsessively worked body of artefacts.  

Circles as a form have been the preoccupation of many artists since Giotto flicked his wrist and submitted a perfect circle as an example of his talent. Whether it be Yayoi Kusama, Wassily Kandinsky, Anish Kapoor, a rondo by Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly, or Rembrandt’s  Self-Portrait with Two Circles  (c. 1665–1669), artists new and old have explored this shape. Kandinsky said: “Of the three primary forms… the circle points most clearly to the fourth dimension” -– he thought they were the fundamental building blocks of art. They are potent symbols representing higher thoughts and ideas beyond our reality. How can one NOT explore them? ‘ 

Exhibition by Bronwen Findlay

Tamasa Gallery is proud to present Garden an exhibition by celebrated artist. Bronwen Findlay.

Artist’s statement:
‘ Twenty-one years ago, in June 2002 I had an exhibition to celebrate the opening of the Tamasa Gallery. I called that exhibition FLOORS AND FLOWERS – I was inspired by Durban plants and my old-fashioned flower-patterned linoleum floor – Marianne Meijer wrote – “her work plays with different levels of reality”. I have called this exhibition GARDEN – my work continues to play with different levels of reality. I paint what I see, what I remember, what I have experienced. My own garden inspires me as do other people’s, wild gardens, gardens of the mind, the word garden can have many layers. I like to think that the plants, birds, and creatures in my paintings are recognizable, but I also like to think that they are about the language of paint, surface, pigment, texture. So, I paint in layers, colour over colour, I scrub, I remove, I replace – the final painting is often not what I expected, perhaps gardening is also about this element of control and letting go. ‘