A painting created by local artist, Tony Swift will be featured on a SABC2 programme called A Country Imagined this Sunday evening.
The programme is hosted by the musician and anthropologist Johnny Clegg and explores the landscapes that have inspired many artists and the “rich histories of art in the country and the imaginings of our society”.
A painting created by local artist, Tony Swift will be featured on a SABC2 programme called A Country Imagined this Sunday evening.
The programme is hosted by the musician and anthropologist Johnny Clegg and explores the landscapes that have inspired many artists and the “rich histories of art in the country and the imaginings of our society”.
Swift’s painting Kimberly the big hole is currently on exhibition at the William Humphreys Art Gallery in Kimberley, a gallery considered as one of the finest art museums in South Africa.
The show contacted him on the the recommendation of Ann Pretorius, the curator of the gallery. The Kimberly hole is realistically and symbolically portrayed in the painting, offering a glimpse of its history.
Swift explains that the hole is filled with water, which he has portrayed as a giant diamond. Within the giant crystal are the miners, portrayed as “almost microscopic”, still hard at work searching for treasures.
Swift explains that he created the realistic texture of the rock by applying layers of oil paint and then using an angle grinder to gouge grooves into the painting.
He had to work very carefully as the hand-held power tool grinds at a roaring speed. He recalls that a woman came to analyse the painting before it was sent to the national gallery. “She could not understand how the effects in the painting were created,” said Swift.
“When she was informed it was through an angle grinder she said she had never met an oil painter who used an angle grinder!”
Swift, who is also a sculptor, said this approach combines his love of sculpting and painting. The painting took about two years to complete.
“I spent a lot of time on that painting, the cutting on the sides of the hole took a great deal of detail,” Swift said.
“It is a lovely painting and I researched it thoroughly. It means that I am getting more exposure. “There is a difficulty in getting your work seen around the world,” he said.
The closer you look at the delicate strokes of painting which look realistic from afar, the more abstract it becomes.
This work is a perfect example of Swift’s use of abstract realism. Aspiring author, Erika Wertlen describes Swift’s abstract realism as looking so close at reality that it becomes abstract, so it can be interpreted in both ways; a method in which to create “a living painting”.
Sharing a sneak preview of his work for the National Art’s Festival, he said that he is currently working on a sculpture of the Bible story of a boy that brought Jesus fish.
The Bible does not say much about who he is, which is why it interested him. The sculpture, carved out of the trunk of a tree, will form part of his exhibition entitled People of the wood, wood of the people.
Swift says he finds it to be a remarkable process, transforming wood into something greater other than its purpose of building a house or being thrown into a fire. “I have given them another type of life,” he says.
