Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Artist brings feeling to her work
Painter and potter launches exhibit
THEY say life begins at 40.
Claire Lowden said it was at that age she realised it was time for her to start being an artist.
“I had always yearned to draw and paint, my children were becoming more independent and it seemed to be an appropriate gift to myself for my 40th birthday,” said Lowden.
She began 20 years ago when she first attended a regular arts class. Ten years later, she explored her creative work and expanded into making sculptures and ceramic art.
On Friday at 6pm, she will host an exhibition titled From Africa With Love at The Studio Art Gallery in Simon’s Town. She said it celebrates the blessing of living under the African sky and there will be large and small oil paintings to view. They include landscapes, street scenes, large detailed paintings and portraits of women.
“The ceramics include pots that are coiled and either glazed or fired in sawdust or smoke-fired. Their detailing includes carving out of indigenous flowers and trees. The sculptures are ceramic, some are busts and are finished with hand-painted effects,” said Lowden.
“I am drawn to visual beauty and love to capture that in my paintings and I prefer to paint boldly and brightly. I am drawn by classic shapes in my pottery and love to carve out designs, burnishing them with a stone and then smoke-firing the item,” she added.
Her first solo exhibition was held at The Studio Art Gallery in Kalk Bay in 2014 before its relocation. The first exhibition was titled The Cape Dutch
Connection and it was a fusion of her “Dutch roots” and her “life in Cape
Town”.
“I first participated in some group exhibitions. This builds up one’s confidence. I had always loved viewing sculptures, started with hand-coiling ceramic pots and I evolved from there,” she said.
“Although a solo exhibition is a great leap of faith, it is wonderful to spend five years preparing a body of work toward a specific theme and then exhibiting it as a cohesive whole,” she added.
She said she is fortunate that she has a happy disposition.
Fellow artist Mandy de Jager met Lowden six years ago in their art class and describes her as “extremely caring”.
“She reads people very well, she’s spiritual like that. She has that same love and passion she has for people and she gives that same energy to her art,” said De Jager.