BY ERIKA
Martin
and I would often walk past a lovely old house in Diaz Street in Strand North.
It is
a real old-fashioned strandhuis which
has grown in a higgledy-piggledy manner as the need for more space arose until
it now consists of a brick and mortar core with several wooden lean-to structures.
At the
back, even a caravan has attached itself to the house like a barnacle as if it had once come
down to the beach for a holiday and just never left.
And every
time we walked past we would mention how great it would be to spend time exploring
the huge, overgrown and rather old fashioned garden with its magnolia and
mulberry trees and ivy climbing up and over the perimeter walls built from smooth
river stones.
And so
it happened that the wish was granted last year when artist and teacher, Merissa Slingerland moved her art school there.
Since
then I have spent many a summer evening in this magical garden, or otherwise inside
the old house, making art, drinking wine and enjoying the good company of a great art teacher and other creative people there.
Rather than a very
formal set-up, art classes with Merissa is more like a social event where you
also learn to get better at something we all love doing – being creative!
The classes cover
all media including drawing, panting, sculpture, printing and pottery.
You don’t need any previous
experience to join and although everyone starts off drawing, later you choose
whatever medium you prefer and you develop at you own pace.
From time to time
Merissa prepares a formal lesson e.g. on different styles or art forms, sometimes she organises
a model for live drawing but mostly she helps, guides and cajoles us in her
gentle way, to try new media, techniques etc.
And once or twice a year we all exhibit our works at a gallery or tother appropriate venue.
And once or twice a year we all exhibit our works at a gallery or tother appropriate venue.
ART FROM THE HEART
Merissa, who has
been teaching art to people from all ages in the Helderberg area for eight
years and before that in Rustenburg for three years, is herself an accomplished
artist having exhibited upcountry and locally at Rialto in Strand.
She studied fine art
at the Vaal Triangle Technikon (now the North-West University Vaal Triangle
Campus) and worked as a graphic artist in London, Edinburgh and locally.
“I
enjoy working with a variety of media and I love using expressionistic colours
and images to take the observer into another world,” she says.
Her artistic style is a
combination of media in earthy and bright colours. Rather than directly representing
the world in a naturalistic manner, her work expresses an inner experience
through a variety of organic textures, lines and forms.
Merissa also enjoys the technical challenges
of printing media.
Interested in viewing Merissa’s
art? Want to commission a work for your home or office?
Feel like joining her art classes?
Call 084 548 5441 or email her at merissaland@gmail.com
Visit her Facebook page and have a look at the activities Merissa Singerland Artist & Teacher offers adults and children including the popular art parties in the garden.
