Art
The Riebeek Valley is not just about olives and wine! The Valley is home to a number of artists, some of whose works command high sums in the galleries of the world. Their work is astoundingly beautiful, so look out for Art Events that happen in the valley, when some of the wonderful work is showcased.
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Christopher Murphy - Photographer
Based in the Swartland, Christopher's subject of photography choice is the natural landscape which surrounds him. He is well known in and around the Swartland, not only for his extraordinary landscape photography, but for his photography of yesteryear's heritage buildings, capturing and recording, via his lens, their often keen poignant decline and neglect. |
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Claudia Gurwitz - Artist
Claudia is a yoga teacher & contemporary artist. In 1999 she completed her national certifications in Aromatherapy, Reflexology and Holistic Massage therapy. In 2001, she completed her yoga teachers training and Ayurvedic Primary Health Care course. In 1999 she completed her national certifications in Aromatherapy, Reflexology and Holistic Massage therapy. In 2001, she completed her yoga teachers training and Ayurvedic Primary Health Care course. |
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Emma Willemse - Artist
Emma Willemse is a conceptual artist, lecturer and curator living and working in the Riebeek Valley. Her art-making practice is technically varied and include artist’s books, sculptural installations, printmaking, video, photographic processes, drawing and painting. Her works deal with themes of place and trauma, urban development and the interlinking constructs of place, memory and identity. |
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Garth Meyer - Potter
Garth Meyer has been a potter for twenty years and works in all the clays – Terracotta, Stoneware, Porcelain and all the firing methods- Raku, Oxidation & Reduction, to produce functional & decorative work. He primarily works on the potter’s wheel. Wares are available online, at selected galleries, and directly from the studio in Riebeek Kasteel, "Garth Meyer Studio". |
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Gordon Williams - Artist
Capetonian born Gordon Williams’ paintings are a unique combination of Expressionism and Impressionism. His medium is acrylic on canvas or charcoal on paper and working mainly ‘en pleine aire,’ which in and around the Riebeek Valley, in the harsh Swartland Summer, can be unrelenting and clearly a labour of love. His work is full of honest and intuitive brush strokes and encapsulates the wild ever changing landscapes of the region, in addition to the internal turmoil’s that are part of the artist’s makeup. |
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Greta Matthews McMahon - Artist
Greta Matthews McMahon started her career as a set designer and props maker at the National Theatre of Namibia after receiving a diploma from the Pretoria Technicon in Theatre crafts in 1990. After living in Ireland and Holland for a number of years, she now lives and works in the Riebeek Valley, where she has a small studio and gallery. |
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Jenny Parsons - Artist
Originally from Natal, Jenny Parsons graduated from the Durban University of Technology with a Higher National Diploma in Fine Arts. Jenny has participated in numerous exhibitions, as well as lecturing Art at the Natal Technikon Short Courses Unit and for the Natal Society of Arts. Jenny is an urban landscape painter working mostly in oil on canvas and chalk pastel. Her latest paintings explore the existence of nature within the city. |
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Philip Barlow - Artist
Working within a long tradition of landscape painting, his depiction of the ‘seen’ landscape is simply a vehicle through which he navigates territory of another nature. A landscape less ordinary; where the line between the physical and the spiritual realm has seemingly been removed. However, these scenarios are not intended to be of a surreal nature. The figures in the landscape serve as carriers and reflectors of the light that falls upon them. |
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Riaan Van Zyl - Artist
Since the start of Riaan's career, he has taken primary inspiration from commonplace, ordinary ideas and his perception of things around him, effectively capturing its fascination and value with a de-constructed eye. At first glance his work looks abstract and confusing but the results have their own very personal syntax, punctuation and orchestration. They become almost a performance of movement rather than a standard drawing. |
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Solly Smook - Artist
Solly's artworks portray the splinters of the sensual and the spiritual. With modern, expressionistic brush strokes, palette knife and provocative colours, the divine is brought forward as the subject matter. His goal is to create paintings that engage with matters beyond what is immediately visible, quite often consciously and reflexively questioning the nature of spiritual identity as something deconstructed, created, and tangible. |
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Tamlin Blake - Artist
The major themes of Blake’s work have revolved around cross-cultural South African symbols of wealth and status. More recently though she is interested in what constitutes and underpins each individual’s sense of belonging and identity. This can be seen in the interplay of influences in her recycled newspaper tapestries, which visually and conceptually explore how stories weave themselves around us. The often seemingly surreal rise and fall of contemporary heroes, the successes and tragedies of ordinary people and the births and deaths of neighbours are part of the everyday yet sometimes bizarre events which insinuate themselves into our reality and affect our thinking. |
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Val Green - Artist
Val is another local artist who has exhibited her work all over the world. She has dedicated her life to exploring art in life and using it for therapy and expression to benefit the body and mind. Throughout her working life Val has continued to paint and exhibit her art work. She has had 14 one woman shows, including one which she was invited to hold in the USA in 1997. Her work has sold world-wide and she is represented in the Cape Town National Gallery, The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum in Port Elizabeth and UPE Rare Books Library. |
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William Walker - Photographer
One of the early masters of landscape photography said that, “The negative is the equivalent of the composer’s score, and the print the performance.”, and William believes that this still holds true today. There are 1.8 billion photographs being taken daily, which means that most modern pictures have a 15-second lifespan – modern prints can remain virtually unchanged for up to 150 years. William is well known for his landscape photographs, particularly of the Swartland area. |
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