The art of Ryno Swart

Watercolour shivers

Waterolour is like skin. Sensual, responsive, yielding. Working in watercolour is seduction. We have to tune in to the tactilities of paper, pigment, gravity, water, and the slow passage of time. The paper responds to us as we respond to it. We read, subconsciously, the body language of the washes, the splash of water droplets, and we reach a peak of heightened awareness, sensual in nature, but also emotional, even spiritual.

This last week, for the first time in many years, I took up my watercolours again, and over the days, I noticed a tingling, an arousal of all my senses. I planned my return in the form of a workshop, to force myself to spend time with the medium, because, for some reason, probably pragmatic, although emotively watercolour is my favourite medium, I have not been working in it.

We cannot make a watercolour work, we have to stand aside and watch in wonder and awe, as it blossoms under our touch. While skill and will are necessary, but without the surrender of self, they lead to cold, meaningless image-making.

From us is demanded, patience and responsiveness, tenderness, daring, steadfastness and courage. And, of course, love, passion and sensuality.

French Plait

It was during the first days of the Artists Co-operative. Samantha, who had just moved from being my student and my model and friend, to managing the day-to-day running of the Co-op, told me that an English lit student was interested in doing some modelling.
Ruby
Her name was Ruby, a lovely young girl, tall, slim,  good posture and a noble face, and long dark hair drawn back into a French plait that brushed the tops of her buttocks. More that this, she was the perfect manifestation of a fantasy woman that I had been painting for some ten years before. Three things have made my life fulfilled, three things that once I had seen them, my life was forever changed, touched by inescapable beauty. Three things that meant that my reason for living had been completed, and all that I have done since the moment I first saw them, was to celebrate and to express the joy of beauty: bentwood chairs, sash windows, and French plaits.

One summer afternoon, for her first modeling session, the two of us, Samantha and myself, worked with Ruby. It was a hot day, and I had asked Ruby to take a standing pose for 10 minutes. The mood was quiet, and there was a lovely sense of concentration, nearly a meditation, in our upstairs studio in Observatory. I work, when drawing, with my eyes on the model, barely glancing at the paper, and I became aware of a slight sway in Ruby.

Instinct took over. In two strides I was at her side, catching her a moment before she hit the floor. Behind me I eard my drawing board falling, and Sam's "What..?"

There I was, on my knees, with this exquisite young woman in my arms, unconscious, and her long French plait draped over my thigh. Samantha fetched some water while I tried to make sense out of the situation. In hindsight, today, it was nothing but a coming together of souls, ships in the night. It was not so much Ruby that I was holding in my arms, as my love of art and a certain kind of sensual beauty.

Art and beauty surrendered into my embrace, an embrace that endures to this day.

Workshops

Two figure/portrait painting workshops remain for the rest of 2008. 

October 28 - 31 (Tue to Fri): 4 day pastel figure painting.

November 55 - 28 (Tue to Fri): 4 day figure painting in oils.

I am very keen to spend a long time in Venice, painting in the cold and wet, mist and rain; and then my workshops should resume in March.

The Golden Mean

Classical art has always had a close relationship with the various proportions that we find in nature and in beautiful manmade objects. The most important of these is the golden mean. I have set up a simple example of the golden mean with step-by-step instructions for creating it here.

In this issue

• Watercolour shivers
• French Plait
• Workshops
• The Golden Mean

Website

http://artistvision.org/

Workshops

For details on workshops and classes in Cape Town and Europe, click here

Archive

Previous newsletters from Ryno can be found here.

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