Born in South Africa (lived also in Botswana and Rhodesia/Zimbabwe)
Artist and Industrial Designer
Studied at the Johannesburg College of Art & Design
Emigrated to Canada with my family in 1987
My Roots:
As a child I was part of a nomadic family. Born in Pretoria South Africa,
I also lived in Francistown in Botswana, Bulawayo in Zimbabwe and Johannesburg, Durban and Roodepoort in South Africa.
The influence of the sounds, colours, rhythm, vibrancy, art and artists of Africa and its history, has never left me and my life experience in Africa is still expressed through some of my art.
After qualifying as an Industrial Designer, I concentrated on the design & production of office and hospitality furniture.
Design Experience includes:
* Office Furniture
* Interior Design of Offices and Banking Halls
* Hotel and Hospitality Furniture
* Product Design and Production
In 2000, I incorporated my own business for design and production of hotel and hospitality furniture. Projects included hotels, airports and restaurants such as W Hotel in Atlanta GA, Disney Cruise Lines and Delta Airlines’ holding area restaurants in MN, LGA among others.
Retired from business in 2018 to make art full time.
Exhibited in:
* Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition -1995, 1996 and 2019.
* Riverdale Art Walk - 2019, 2020
* Art Walk Square - 2020
* Leslie Grove Gallery - 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
* Riverside Common - 2022
Still Life With A Colonizers View
Acrylic on Stretched Canvas
Ms Legae
Oil on Canvas Board
A Colonialist's view
Oil on Canvas 30" x 24"
My Creative Process:
The theme of much of my work develops during the sketching process. Once a theme is decided, detailing is added and then colour if required
Cityscape Jerusalem
The Colonialist
So There You Are
We know that artists have changed the colours of a work by using different techniques and media such as silk-screen, etching, Lino cuts, wood block & more.
My interest differed. I wanted to know and understand how different colours affect a viewer's response to the same work. A computer monitor became a canvas and apps became my brush, paints, pastels, inks and pencils. All this led to the OPUS Series.
In a recent "MIT Technology Review" June 18th 2024 article "Why Artists are becoming less scared of AI" by Melissa Heikkila.... "...right now, we are in a moment where we are deciding how much creative power we are comfortable giving AI companies and tools..........at one of the largest events for creatives in Europe, and the message I got from those I spoke to was that AI is too glitchy and unreliable to fully replace humans and is best used instead as a tool to augment human creativity".
Would the great Masters have used modern technology if it had been available? I believe they would have; think Warhol and Hockney.
OPUS 37.BK
OPUS 37.GY
OPUS 146.BE
To me art is everywhere, in the formations of trees and rocks, in the lines, shadows and details of a building, in the graffiti on street walls, on advertising billboards and packaging, in a child’s drawing, in a doodle. Architect Louis Khan said "The sun never knew how great it was until it hit the side of a building".
Click to go to: "Original" Prints & Fabric Designs
"Stained Glass" Doors
When in Israel in 1967 I was fortunate to spend a day with my cousin "decorating" the windows of a house he had designed.
On my return to South Africa, I convinced my parents to allow me to "decorate" the entrance doors of the hotel's dining room.
I used the same technique I had learned in Israel & my parents never disowned me.
Abstraction
I have always flirted with Abstract Art and find myself often crossing over to this form.
As I continue on this journey in Abstraction, I have spent wonderful times discovering what
I can create without emotion or reality.
Let the creation be a visual and cerebral experience of colour, shapes, forms and texture.
My work is in Private Collections in Canada, Australia, South Africa, US, Israel, Germany & England.