Artist Spotlight: Helen Anne Petrie

Sebastian Schwagele recently completed three years of research on a leading philanthropist and Anti Apartheid female South African artist, Helen Anne Petrie He submitted to me his biography of her for publication.

The is a self portrait of Helen Anne Petrie

Born to a privileged Kensington, Johannesburg family of Scottish descent in 1933, (Helen) Anne Petrie and her older brother appeared set to growing up into a very promising life ahead. Her family had made a fortune out of gold and diamond mining. Her parents kept their rather comfortable “Summer House” in Fish Hook (The “Hamptons” equivalent in USA) and were socialites of the day. Her parents were regular guests at Admiralty House when in the Cape or attending luncheons with Count Labia.

In 1938 a relative, who noted the great potential Anne had shown already at a tender age of five, cut out an article from the Huisgenoot, a local magazine, dated 18 August, entitled "Hoekom ek skilder" ("Why I Paint") by the then renowned artist Maggie Loubser while on holiday from Boarding School. This article was translated from Afrikaans into English for Anne by her multilingual nanny. A diary entry records Anne was truly mesmerized at the contents, and thus her eventual admiration for Maggie and passion to paint was unknowingly set.

During this tertiary period, Anne made two trips to Europe touring leading galleries. Florence was her favorite city, then Rome, she noted. Returning to South Africa she began painting her first oils and developing her own style. In 1954 she spent a short period of time sitting in on lectures at the Kunstakedemie van Mechelen, Sint Niklaas and Antwerp, where she met artist Jan Vermeiren who assisted her in mastering her least favorite mediums: acrylic and pastels.

While traveling, Anne met Mary (May) Ellen Hillhouse, who like Anne had Scottish heritage. Together they consulted on what they both declared was "soul-destroying commercial work" also resulting in Anne becoming (like May) an illustrator for various local and foreign companies, excelling in her graphic design for pottery, pattern design for Garlicks and Greatermans and Butterick Dress patterns, to name just a few of the then very popular high-street brands.

In 1955 upon meeting Marjorie Wallace and husband Jan Rabie, they ended up in a heated debate on politics and thus was cemented her lifelong interest in humanitarian causes in South Africa. Anne could be very opinionated and outspoken. In 1960 Anne was infuriated by the countrywide protests against the so-called Pass Laws and Police brutality in response to the anti-Pass Laws campaign.

South African Union

Bantu Woman Servant

In 1967 Mr. Albert Wert (Then Curator of the Pretoria Art Museum) together with Matthys Bokhorst (Director of the South African National Gallery) enquired as to whether Anne would be willing to participate in the SANLAM Art Collection Exhibition. She declined to participate as the collection "did not possess that degree of inner unity it would have had if the collection had from the beginning been built up for the purpose of exhibition." She further suspected that the main intention of the SANLAM Collection was to build up a mere collection of attractive South African paintings and sketches to be left hanging in the offices of directors and staff alike. The public would only have access to subsequent prints to feature on SANLAM'S calendars. Further diary entries indicate that she also declined an offer from Rembrandt Van Rijn Art Foundation to purchase her works privately. Already at this stage, her strong opinions, insecurities, inability to interact with strangers, deep-rooted distrust of people in general and her ever more frequent bipolar phases were quite obvious.

Anne did however exhibit in South Africa twice in 1967, the most important exhibition being from 30th October till 11th November at the South African Association of Artists Annual Exhibition in Cape Town. A leading Art Critic of the day, Johan van Rooyen stated her works entitled respectively Indian Girl, Bantu Boy and Late Afternoon, Kommetjie "should be hailed as proving the standard that is expected at an exhibition of this calibre," which included works by fellow artists I. Roworth, S. Butler, V. Volschenk and L. Mears.

In 1971 Anne once again, declined an invitation; this time from Gunther van der Reis, to participate in the "1971 Republic Festival Exhibition" which was organized by the S. A. Association of Artists. She decided to exhibit in Tel-Aviv that year instead. Anne’s works were exhibited in the late 60’s early 70’s at various galleries in SA, where she obtained critical acclaim.

Jug, Apples and Eggs

Anne noted in her personal diary in 1972 that two major schools of thought were apparent in the South African art world. One thought was where artists identified with various aspects of their social, political, geographical and environmental conditions; the other with very close ties with international trends, often be related to Colonialism and the Empire.

Or the “invisible people of South Africa” as she called them. The many millions of non-Europeans and vast, underprivileged majority, which in real fact made the very fabric of the working nation:

Anne felt most at home in the Cape because she found relief there for her bodily ills, and the Autumns and Winters. At the end of her life, Anne had amongst her closest friends and fellow artists, mainly local Cape Coloured and Malay inhabitants. These were the people with whom Anne felt she could really be herself: a plain, genuine woman who seldom was impulsive.

In her final years, Anne was mentally and emotionally split in many worlds. Her bipolar condition, combined with the trauma of emotional, physical and sexual abuse by her brother, and the loss of her parents from which she never fully recovered, meant Anne would have been better off in an institution. She ended her days alone, with grey, messed up, wiry hair. She wandering and talked to herself, shifting between worlds only she knew. She became known to the locals as "The Fish-Hoek Old Witch."

Various European Royal Courts owning works by Anne in their Private Collections

• Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II & H.R.H. Phillip, the Prince Consort of The United Kingdom
• H.M. King Juan Carlos I & Queen Sofia of Spain
• H.M. Kong Harald & H.M. Dronning Sonja of Norway
• H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf & H.M. Queen Silvia of Sweden
• Her Majesty Queen Anne-Marie & H.R.H. Henrik, the Prince Consort of Denmark
• Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko of Japan
• Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands
• H.R.H King Constantine & H.M. Queen Anne-Marie of Greece
• H.R.H Charles, Prince of Wales & Duchess of Cornwall
  

Represented in the following Public National / International Collections

• National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo
• TATE Modern, London
• National Gallery, Denmark
• National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo
• The Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC
• Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
• National Gallery, Finland
• The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
• The Guggenheim, Bilbao
• The Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna
• National Portrait Gallery, London
• Dr. Shirley Sherwood Collection

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The Incredible Life of James Kuhn

A rare moment when James is posing in a suit and tie.

James Kuhn, a 47 year old eccentric artist from Three Oaks, Michigan says that he has always wanted to be an artist. In fact, his mother states that he even drew pictures in his oatmeal when he was a child. James has attended the Art Institute of Chicago and learned to draw from drawing live models there. Although his paintings done in a style that resembles ceramic tiles are unique in themselves, James has been getting notoriety from his face paintings.

James attributes his art to a religious experience. James says that he thinks visually and if he can picture something in his head, it becomes real to him. Says James, "I believe that any talent that I have was given to me from God for me to share, so I dedicated my art to Him." [1]

Besides face painting, James paints scenes from the Bible and uses a technique that makes his paintings resemble tiled pictures that he calls "paint mosaics." This collage style is made up of painted watercolor paper cut up and assembled on a canvas. Once James finishes a picture, he keeps it around himself so he "can sort of get to know it better." He often sees himself in the characters and situations of his paintings.

Says James of his paintings, "I think of them as paintings and they are made up of paint; but they are not 'traditional' paintings. I draw my composition onto a canvas and then paint it like a normal painting. This is the end of most paintings but only the beginning of mine. I then cover up this first painting with collage. I paint many sheets of thick watercolor paper with acrylic paint. This part is very free, abstract, and intuitive. I later cut up these abstract paintings and assemble them onto my painting until the entire surface is covered and often thick. The process seems more to me like appliqué or quilting, mosaic, or making a stained glass picture, than traditional painting. Each picture is made up of hundreds of pieces of painted paper glued into place to create a scene that has depth and volume. I draw with my scissors and choose very specific areas of the painted paper to achieve this effect." [2]

James in one of his costumes at a parade. He dresses up in several characters.- Note: James says this isn't him. Sorry James!

Although some of his escapades aren't appropriate to describe in a family friendly site such as The Incredible Art Department, he frequently dresses up in costumes and performs in parades. From this, he moved on to what has made him famous- face paintings. For his face paints he uses Kryolan Aqua Color, Snazaroo, and Paradise by Mehron.

James says he loves to paint on anything, including human flesh. He records his face paintings in digital photographs which are also a form of art in themselves. He uses a Canon Powershot A610 5 Mega Pixel camera. He says that his face painting takes on magical powers. He attributes the inspiration and change in his art to his attendance at the annual Burning Man event in Nevada's Black Rock Desert.

Says James of Burning Man, "I believe it completeIy changed the way i think about art and perhaps the purpose for which I even make art. Art should never be a product. It should be a gift of love and a prayer. Art is silly, and fun, and can be powerful and sacred. I do show in galleries, but selling should never be your motivation for creating art." [3]

James has had an interesting life. He made a vanilla milkshake for Michael Jackson, danced with Stevie Nicks, met Andy Warhol at the Limelight Club in Chicago, met Pee-Wee Herman, served champagne to Yoko Ono and "partied" with Dr. Ruth Westheimer and the Fonze. He has appeared as a guest on the Jenny Jones show in Chicago. He has appeared in a television commercial and has traveled the world. His hairdos are extreme with his hair around three feet above his head. He says, that the higher the hair, the closer to God. One of his aliases is Junie Moon and has appeared as her in several parades. He creates his own costumes. He loves Klingons and attends the Wizard of Oz Festival in Chesterton, Indiana every year. He makes a point of chatting with the last living munchkins and wears various Oz costumes. James worked as a singing and dancing waiter at the famous Ed Debevics in Chicago for nine years. You can still see his picture on their menus.

James poses with his mother wearing one of his famous hair-dos.

James listens to contemporary Christian music while he paints. He gets some of his inspiration from attending circuses. His primary inspiration comes from Pablo Picasso and Frida Kahlo. James says he is an artist who refuses to give up against all odds and continues to make art in a world that really does not care. James believes that Van Gogh intoxicates people with his use of color.

As mentioned earlier, his face paintings have been what has put him on the map recently. He says that some faces take hours to create and other faces may portray the emotion with just a few lines. He likes many of his characters to be comical and fun. His pictures now appear all over the internet.

"Painting for me is not work, it is my pleasure and my prayer. I paint to relax and recharge. The obsessive nature of these pictures might wear another man out, but to me they bring me peace," says James. [4]

James has some great advice for all artists, teachers, and students. "Never quit. Express yourself and never waste your God given gifts." [5]

Below you can see his work on YouTube. As you can see, he has many fascinating faces. It is unfortunate that each painting must be destroyed to create another. However, the images are digitally reproduced for all to see for years to come.

Links to James Kuhn's work

• Flickr
• Bibleartwork.com
• MySpace

May 12, 2009
Hey all! I found a few new pics of his face paintings that were so good I had to post them here:

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World's Largest Art Prize

Rick DeVos announces the world's largest art prize.

Artists from around the world will descend on Grand Rapids, Michigan this fall to compete for the world's largest prize given for art during a two-week event.

Amway heir Rick DeVos announced the event on April 23 in Grand Rapids. The part that makes this competition even more unusual than the large financial winnings of around $500,000, prizes will be awarded based on public votes cast via text messages, the Web and special applications developed for devices such as the iPhone. The competition is designed to draw worldwide attention to Grand Rapids.

The competition begins Sept. 23, 2009. Ten top vote recipients will be chosen after the first week to compete in a second round of public voting for the $250,000, $100,000 and $50,000 first, second and third place prizes to be awarded Oct. 8. Each finalist will receive at least $7,000.

DeVos is an entrepreneur who has two popular websites, Spout.com, an Internet community for film buffs, and TheCommon.org, a Web site that matches the abilities of people in communities with organizations in need.

DeVos said to the Grand Rapids Press, "A lot of my ideas are around using technology to connect people to each other or to art in new and interesting ways," said DeVos, 27, grandson of Amway co-founder Rich DeVos and son of former Amway chief executive and Michigan gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos. "Thinking about that, thinking about events, thinking about an overall love of art, I started to come up with questions like, 'What if we took a completely different approach to having an event in Grand Rapids?' "What if the city itself was a gallery?"[1]

DeVos said how people react to the competition will be part of what makes ArtPrize a unique and an engaging experience. Hundreds of venues are expected to be part of the event, ranging from corporate lobbies and empty buildings to public parks. "The call is going to go out to thousands and thousands of artists tomorrow to kick this off," he said during an interview with the Press.

Registration for the event ends on July 31, 2009. the artist and venue matching ends August 15, 2009. Open day and voting begins on September 23, 2009. The top 10 artists will be announced October 1, and the final winner will be announced October 8, 2009. Artists can register online on the ArtPrize website.

A webcast below of the public announcement of ArtPrize was available at the Internet broadcasting site Ustream.tv.

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Do you have art news you want to share? Are you an art teacher and want to brag about your students here? me with your news and I will put it here next month.

Art Supply Specials

	In May, Dick Blick is offering 37 - 60% off Prismacolor four-in-one markers and $5.95 shipping costs. There is free shipping for orders over $200. They have 49% off Artists' Boards. Use coupon code CCFU at checkout.
	Wacom continues their massive sale in tablets into May. If you have been waiting to get a WACOM pen tablet, now might be the time to buy. The Academic Superstore is selling refurbished Intuos3 unites for $109.95. You also can get some bundled with software such as Painter 11. New tablets range in price from $224.95 to $789.95 for one with a 12.0 x 19.2 inch screen and 5080 lpi resolution.
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MisterArt is having a blowout sale of 75% off. If you sign up for their VIP savings club, you can get 75% off savings every day. One year membership costs $25.