week 17

by Andries Loots

" I've always lived in a soft, natural environment which is why my lines are soft and round. I pick up colours from my surroundings, store them and then draw on them as in dreams. Lots of blues, greens, reds and pinks....... "

After a very successful exhibition in Gauteng, Hannetjie de Clercq is back at her " Castle " and is working fiercely for her upcoming exhibition which will open in October at her house in Riebeeck Kasteel in the Swartland,   Cape, South Africa.

If one looks at the surroundings in which this artist lives and works it is no wonder that such wonderful creations come from her studio. Hannetjie and her husband Dion bought a piece of land in the beautiful valley of Riebeek Kasteel. Here they built a Moorish Castle like house which has since become a landmark for this small town and his visitors.

The little golden fountain in the courtyard   is the focus  were one can at night admire the stars above.

Hannetjie started painting at a very young age and apart from art classes at school has no formal training but she succeeded in making her painting into a viable career not only because of her business acumen in marketing her work but also because like she put it into her own words : " It is what I am destined to be".

There is a truthfulness to her work and a lot of meaning and symbolism. Like Riva Cohen of the Atlantic Art Gallery in Cape Town puts it, " everybody can identify with the figures, they are real people with real feelings - people that we all know, looking at the future and expressing hope, joy and even sadness." There is nothing harsh about her colours. They are easy on the eye, but at the same time it's not " pretty " pictures. Very few  paintings are titled, " I don't paint words, sometimes I have a specific idea of what I am going to paint but mostly it just flows." Riva has been handling Hannetjie's work for a very long time and is one of the Galleries where one can always see examples . Hannetjie gets her inspiration mainly from the " old world ", Turkish miniatures, icons and medieval frescoes.

There is a richness of colour which is enhanced by the 24ct gold leaf that so often appears in her work. Her husband restores furniture and draws inspiration from the neo-baroque period where gold leaf also plays an important part in the finishing.

From her very first exhibition ,   Hannetjie's work immediately got noticed. Her art is alluring, elusive and compelling. Her work is very popular with local and overseas art collectors and  has been included into  numerous cooperate collections like SASOL, Prima Bank, Provincial Library, Edenvale Library Tapestry, TELKOM, Olienhuis Bloemfontein, Nationale Pers, SAFMARINE
( London ) and private collections in South Africa, London, Los Angeles, Paris, Lisbon, Cannes, Singapore and Amsterdam.