Lady Grey Artist – Heleen du Preez

THE ARTIST

In Memoriam of Heleen du Preez, well known artist and teacher from Johannesburg now lived in Lady Grey.  She preferred to be close to nature and it can be seen in her works of art.  She also assisted at the Lady Grey Arts Academy and was actively involved with the promotion of Arts and Crafts in the area.

 ESSENCES

In this body of work (to the right and down) she explored the visual impact of the physical elements of nature i.e. air, earth, fire and water.  Living in Lady Grey in the North Eastern Cape made her aware of the sensitivity of the environment and how the dramatic interaction of these physical elements create spectacular beauty, she thus dealt with sublime in nature. 

This very fragile environment requires special care, and things like veld fires and over grazing are human activities that destroy.

What ever one does on a physical level also impacts on the spiritual, fire for example becomes a metaphor for purging, it can destroy, but it can also produce change and warmth.

Through this exploration she also became extremely aware of the sameness of things, fire could have the same patterns as water, and water could have the same patterns as clouds etc. this points to holism in nature.

The huge scale is an attempt to envelop the viewer in the physical elements in order to create intense awareness of our physical existence as part of nature and the impact of this physical existence on our souls.