A fisherman at Witsands beach with his colourful boats.
Painted on a piece of driftwood, which retains it's rustic charm, carved and smoothed by sea and sand over many years.
By Bonnie Serjeant
Acrylic
Size: 50cm x 9.5cm and about 2cm thick.
Bonnie Serjeant studied fine art at Michaelis, U.C.T. and architecture and design at Bezalel in Jerusalem. Painted and sold work in New York, Los Angeles and Laguna Beach in California.
Travelled to the South West and rented a studio in Old Town, Albuquerque where she became involved with American Indian artists and the rich culture of New Mexico. She renovated old adobe houses restoring them to their former beauty for resale on the property market. Lived and painted in Mexico where she was very inspired by the grandness of the public spaces and buildings, the use of murals as an art form and the celebration of colour throughout the country. Was fascinated by the religious saints painted on the walls of the old churches.
Started painting murals back in South Africa, often while construction was taking place around her. Began using the discarded construction materials for her work. The dried cement, old nails and scars of power tools are left intact so as to become an integral part of the art piece which is painted in a classical romantic style. The convergence of qualities of the earthed rough wood, combined with the ethereal feminine, transforms the plank into a totemic example of balance and harmony of opposites.
Her art is displayed in private and corporate collections through South Africa and the United States.
She is presently paints in a studio which used to be the old staff quarters of a dairy and is just twenty seven footsteps away from the rocks and the Atlantic Ocean.
My pictures don't do this piece justice - photographed in the shade which has given the white background a bluish tint.
