Artist pays homage to South African landscapes in all their splendour
“The landscapes of South Africa are still wild enough to be magical. They are the kind of places that inspire reverence, in whatever form one chooses.”
These are the introductory words to Karin Daymond’s artist statement as part of her ongoing exhibition at the White River Art Gallery, titled ‘Homage’.
The exhibition opened on April 22 and will be running until May 14. This is Daymond’s sixth solo exhibition at the gallery.
The opening was accompanied by a performance by Gugu Mamba, performing under the name Endle Music.
According to the gallery, the opening was very well received, with many local artists, including Tony Fredriksson, Simon and
Mark Attwood, René Eloff, Leigh Voigt, Reuben Mpangane, Odette Saayman, Maria Ziessler and Felicity Bell joining in.
As a child, Daymond would sit on her grandfather’s lap as he taught her about perspective. “He would take a recycled envelope out of his desk and set out a little still life and describe to me, for example, how the shadows would fall if the light came from a certain direction,” said Daymond.
Casandra Jacobs, the gallery manager, said she believes these influences from a young age and the years of honing and melding her artistic eye and skill, are evident in the proficiency of Daymond’s work today.
“Karin’s style is recognisable, depicting the emotional identity and attachments we feel towards these familiar South
African landscapes, introspective in their extrospection.
“We feel a questioning and belonging in the vastness of the landscapes and an intimacy in the smallness of the lichens.
Her skill of literally ‘moving mountains’
(as Karin puts it) in her work (not always aiming for a literal depiction of the landscapes) to create bold and immersive compositions on her canvas, makes for
Karin Daymond with some gallery patrons.
contemplative and emotionally charged works. Truly a ‘homage’ to our landscapes and a sense of belonging immersed in the palettes of Karin’s keen artistic eye.”
In her artists statement, Daymond further says she wants her work “to carry the feeling of the life in the land; the curious little cool spots that nurture strange, endemic plants, and the possibility of discoveries that reveal things we did not know, the echo of patterns in the microscopic and the macroscopic. I can’t paint that kind of detail, but I can suggest that it is there - illusions that reveal biological truth.”
As a patron for the arts in the Lowveld, Daymond has taught and mentored a number of local artists, her guidance and influence evidenced in the art of a few successful Lowveld artists and art institutions. Multidisciplined across various mediums, her primary focus is large-scale oil painting, although drawing and printmaking, particularly lithography, form an integral part of her work. The South African landscape provides a strong foundation for her themes, exploring in particular the emotional identity of a landscape.