(Pic: Work by Helena Wagenaar to be seen at Crouse GalleryAn exhibition of works inspired by women at Crouse Gallery.
Two women artists - Este Mostert and Helena Wagenaar - with very different views of women will exhibit at the Crouse Art Gallery from September 10. Both women paint evocative, personal, tender, carefully-observed portraits of women – both in their own distinctive style.
Helena Wagenaar’s beautiful and charming oils have such wide appeal and to speak to this warm and talented painter, it’s easy to see her own charm reflected in her works. Her subject matter is largely women and, although this down-to-earth woman doesn’t like to over-intellectualise when pressed says: “Women make the world turn - or condemn it - but I prefer turn. Also, I went to an all-girl school and in the nursing profession was surrounded by women most of the time. I’ve also been inspired by my musical and artistic sisters.” She doesn’t paint many landscapes because, as she puts it, “I live in a landscape. At home, if I turn 360 degrees, there are no houses apart from ours as far as the eye can see.”
Struggle is not evident in Wagenaar’s eloquent, poetic oils. There is a restful quality, even when the subject matter is melancholy, and the paint is vigorously applied with a confident approach and enviable technique that belies her words.
From a very young age, Esté Mostert showed a particular aptitude for the fine arts. This served as inspiration to formally study art. Mostert sees her work as the romanticising of the everyday realities surrounding her. Her experiences are transposed to an out-of-this-world environment where an old worldly gentleness prevails. This setting for her art is often seen as a place where dream and reality meet.
"My career developed from a desire to express my creative abilities and attributes. This I do through painting my dream world, thereby giving expression to my views, my beliefs - my own inner being. The images in my art, are the depiction of the way I see the world and the characters that live in my imagination", Mostert says.
The large combined body of work by Wagenaar and Este Mostert can be send in The Soul of a Woman which opens on September 10 at Crouse Gallery. Crouse Art Gallery is situated at 254 Lillian Ngoyi / Windermere Road. Gallery hours are 09h00 to 16h00 weekdays (Saturdays 09h00 to 12h00). More information on 031 312 2315 or visit www.crouseartkzn.co.za
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