I was just doodling, really, with watercolour and brown ink today - using a picture of Gwen Stefani from a magazine to try out a watercolour portrait, when serendipitously (long word!) an interview started on Radio 702 with Jenny Crwys-Williams talking to Marlene Dumas, whose first SA exhibition starts at the Standard Bank Gallery tonight, having ended it's run in Cape Town. (She is well-known for her watercolour portraits, many of which are taken from magazine images, and sometimes of 'celebrities'. We're obviously totally in synch, us two famous artists!)I am very proud to boast that I was at Michaelis School of Fine Art at the very same time as Marlene, and remember her well as a beautiful, lively and friendly person around the campus. She, of course, was a Fine Art student, already causing a bit of a stir - I remember her having her photo taken with all the lecturers in the quad, probably when she was chosen to take up her scholarship in Amsterdam - while I was a lowly and not very dedicated Graphic Design student. How I wish I could have those years back and take full advantage of the opportunities I didn't realise I had at that time...maybe I would also be selling paintings for millions of dollars by now... well I can dream, can't I?
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4 comments:
What a lovely portrait. You SHOULD be just as famous, and I think you will be. Was it Marlene Dumas' work we saw in the National Portrait Gallery in London, at the BP competition?
No, not there - we saw two (rather macabre) works of hers in the Tate Modern...or was that Ginny and me?;-/ If you click on her name I've linked it to the Saatchi website which has some of her stuff - there are lots of other links if you google her -
Thank you so much for your loyalty and confidence - it's really a bit late in the day, and as she said in the interview, an artist has to focus - not my strong point!
This painting made me think of Marlene Dietrich too!! Maybe Gwen was influenced by her in "the look."
I vaguely remember you talking about M.D. in a museum, Cath. I looked at some of her work online; she is clearly so talented - but quite dark mentally. I prefer being uplifted by the art I see, not depressed! The world is sad enough!
This is wonderful.
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