These are my 2 entries for The chair competition of 2004 and 2005

One of the most valuable learning experiences of my art career, was my first entry into the Brett Kebble Art Awards.

Mr. Kebble had a pre- selected team of qualified active artists, whom traveled throughout South Africa and collecting entrants to an Exhibition of South Africa’s Best.

It was quite amazing to see what South Africa as a whole, had to offer. That kind of market research is invaluable. My last entry was an ode to an art master.

I set out with the challenge, to present Mr. Kebble with an ode to an art master. It took me all of 18 months to complete, the well know Mona Lisa. My version, I named Amon A`Chanè.

Amon A`Chanè was painted in oils, on the traditional wooden panels. All four panels were then bound, back-to-back into a book-format. This idea came from my research on old Dutch Master Painters .... my family heritage.

 Entirely made out of oil painting products, even the leather-looking cover is made out of oil paint and sand, to look like leather. It was great fun solving the binding problems and finishing it all off with silver, old gold and copper trimmings.

Brett Kebble taught me to break outside of my traditional mould and portray the world around me as I see it.

Brett Kebble 2005

Amon A`Chanè 

A bound book of 4 wooden panels

What Is a Netherlandish Diptych?

In the first half of the 15th century a distinctive type of painting arose in the Netherlands.

Nobles and clerics as well as bankers, merchants, and other members of the middle class began to commission works of art now known as diptychs, which consisted of two panels hinged together that could be opened and closed like a book. The format flourished from the 1430s to the 1560s, and its creative possibilities were explored by the greatest artists of the time, including Jan van Eyck, Roger van de Weyden, and Hans Memling.

The primary images for a diptych are on the interior, where they are protected when the ensemble is closed. While occasionally secular in nature, the subject matter is usually religious and often includes portraits of the people who owned the diptychs or in whose memory they were painted. The reverses of many of these panels are painted with auxiliary images such as coats of arms or with imitation marbling.

Most diptychs were small in scale, intended for private contemplation; these either hung on the wall from a chain attached to the top of each panel, or they stood at an angle or rested open on a prie-dieu (prayer desk). They were sometimes stored in a velvet pouch or a small wooden box when not in use.

Front cover

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Why ?  I suppose it was mostly due to how the advertising of the Brett Kebble Art Awards came across to me as an active artist in South Africa.

From the very first moment I saw the competition logo, the same one I have used on the cover of this entry, I knew, this was what South Africa needed. The art world in SA was on a merry-go-round. And we were all so dizzy from leap forging, over and under each other.

He also gave me and the students at Tonkinson Fine Art Studio a whole new purpose and understanding of the international language of art.

My heart was shattered when I heard the sad news. Not only for all the love and effort we had put into these entries/ gifts, but also for the loss to South Africa.

This final piece will always be dear to my heart. Brett Kebble gave me the courage to close my studio and to undertake a one year sabbatical in Europe.

I not only hope to find out more about the ever changing art in Europe, but also to answer the, so many questions, that lie dormant in this ever inquiring mind of mine.

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Netherlandish Diptych  set on your left and on your right, my interpretation of an ode to an old master .

Brett Kebble 2005

One Mans Folly,  Curiosity and Water bearers all three paintings were 1.5 x 1 meter. Oils on stretched canvas.

One Many Folly, was mostly a play on composition. This painting is simply a painting of a mirror, which is reflecting two other mirrors, which in turn reflect, the activity in progress.

It was a great challenge to set up the domino style of mirrors and to counter balance the composition with areas of colour. All in all, I do believe I have succeeded.

Water Bearers contains a very common composition, know as a collage. Here an artists subdivides the chosen area .

 The areas are balanced by the clever usage of colour and tone. The interesting challenge was that I found that I had too little space available.

These problems took a few good brain storming session.

The area behind the girls silver hand mirror is an even larger mirror, in which you can see the reflection of the courtyard.

The three pots in front of the girl, are very interesting. Not only have I actually thrown these pots, but the area allocated -is not possible.

Curiosity, was an outside-the-box approach to portraiture. I really enjoyed gathering tons of photographs for the landscape of Port Elizabeth from Blue Water Bay.

I have made use of optical illusion to allow the viewer to believe that the three pots are positioned at the girls feet.

I stole this magic trick from my previous entry, Out of Africa I.

In Out of Africa II, I have also used this method , and it worked for me.

I have used many bird related symbols in this painting, to further portray the hidden qualities of the persons personality. Here I used the dove as a symbol for ignorance.

Water Bearers. Exhibited at EPSAC for Selection by Brett Kebel Art Awards.

Brett Kebble 2004     Out of Africa I      1.5 x 1 meter oil on canvas.

leopard on a couch, but also the small 5, which, are now on the endangered list of extinction. The quills and feathers represent the Leopard main diet. The blue cloth, represents our water and sky on which lies a gold bar holding the symbols of the leopards main diet. A clever play of textures and reflections complete this painting as each symbol is chosen for its value to me..

e-mail: info@tonkinson-art.com

Tonkinson 2008 Collection

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