Walk of Art Festival

Has been cancelled

Unfortunately, due to lack of interest, the Walk of Art Festival 2009 has been cancelled.

We are regretful that this is to be the final outcome.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to make contact.

Creativity Rules

I am a big believer in approaching all tasks with a creative attitude. If everyone was doing this, most of our social and economic problems would be minimised to nothing. If we all were thinking about how we could add to or create more/better, there would constantly be more and better.

I do realise that our daily challenges and struggles are the very things that erode our creative energy and make us feel like we're living in a bog. I have never been to a Creative Cape Town Cluster before, but there is one on tonight. I am going to rub shoulders with people that apply creativity to their daily functions, and some of that will rub off on me.

This is off Creative Cape Towns Facebook Page...

After a break of a six months and following a successful 3-day intensive Creative Cape Town Clusters at the Design Indaba Expo, Creative Cape Town Clusters are back again. This time we will meet at a new venue – the Cape Town City Hall in Darling Street for a very special Creative Cape Town Clusters.

At this event, we will be launching three new Creative Cape Town products: the Creative Cape Town Annual in partnership with Bell-Roberts Publishing; the Explore Creative Cape Town map published by A&C Maps with designs by Design Infestation; and the new Creative Cape Town website designed by Beanbag Media will all be made public. These products have been made possible with the support of Cape Town Tourism and the Central City Improvement District. The products establish the key communication channels of Creative Cape Town into the future and add to existing channels like this monthly newsletter and our Facebook Fan page.

As always we have three dynamic speakers at the Clusters. For this Clusters, each of the speakers have some connection with our new products. Come listen to Michelle Matthews who edited the Annual and wrote for our website speaking on words and creativity; Jason Bagley who designed the new website speak on websites, blogs and social networking and Phillip Todras and Christo Maritz who created our map speak on Cape Town, maps and design.

I will let you know if I make any fabulous connections for our festival.

Beth Freeman-Kane - Wildlife Miniaturist

A brief biography.

Born in Australia in 1966, Beth came to South Africa with her family in 1970, where she has lived ever since.

Within the specialised field of miniature art, she is entirely self-taught, having displayed from the age of six a natural talent and passion for creating in miniature. This passion combined naturally with her other great love - for wildlife, mainly birds, to produce a style of work which is unique in its concept and execution.

Beth specialises in exquisitely detailed sculpture compositions of birds and their habitats, producing work that is recognised as being of a consistently high standard by the miniature art fraternity. As a result, her work is in great demand and she is one of the finest examples of the artists currently involved in the world wide revival in Miniature Art as a fine art form.

She has membership in the Miniature Art Society of South Africa, the Miniature Art Society of Florida, USA and the Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers of Washington, DC, also in the USA, which are all linked to the World Federation of Miniaturists.

She is also a member of the International Guild of Miniature Artisans having qualified for the status of Artisan. She has been invited to teach a class at the IGMA Summer School in 2010.

Beth travels to the United States of America at least once a year to exhibit, and is regularly involved in Juried shows both internationally and locally. In South Africa, she has been one of the top sellers at the prestigious Art In The Park, held annually in Pietermarizburg, for the past 10 years.

She has collections of work in 3 museums in South Africa and in the United States of America.

Beth has won seventeen international awards to date, including the People's Choice Award for Best Artist On Show at the World Exhibition of Miniatures in 2008.

Beth lives in Assagay in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, surrounded by a husband, three children, dogs, cats, gerbils, goats, various hamsters and birds and a pot-bellied pig called Petunia!

It doesn't get better than this...

Dave Ferguson, Shiraz, Riebeek Kasteel and a free expression of your creative inner child. I highly recommend that you call Li to make a booking on 082 854 6087 or visit her site: www.loveart.co.za
Her bubbly nature is a breath of spring air and if you can't get to Riebeek Kasteel, you can catch her at the Walk of Art Festival in November.

Cape Town Creatives

Image by Steve Crane via Flickr - The symbol of the lighthouse is part of CTC's culture

I came upon a fan page on Facebook this morning that grabbed my attention.
Mostly what I noticed was how you could watch their fan base grow in front of your eyes. I would love to do that?

I looked deeper and discovered their website and blog.
Their website is wonderfully designed, clear, well laid out.

Also it's filled with useful and interesting information, like The Best of Cape Town's:
Coffee Spots, Shopping, Restaurants, Getaways, Sight-seeing spots, Books, Films & Music

They feature a long list of 'creatives' under these categories:
Animators
Architects
Artists
Ceramicists
Crafters
Fashion and Accessory designers
Furniture designers
Graphic designers
Homeware designers
Illustrators and Cartoonists
Jewellery designers
Landscape designers
Lighting designers
Photographers
Printmakers
Sculptors
Web designers

I'll definitely be keeping an eye on their blog and will be adding it to my blog roll immediately.

Joanna Pawelczyk

...is taking part in the Walk of Art Festival. She was one of the first to sign up and she is clearly committed. I asked her to give me some ideas about herself and her art and so she wrote the following short biography. I have printed it exactly the way she wrote it because I love the purity of her writing. I think it tells us alot about Joanna. Read to the end because the last line is the best!

My name is Joanna Pawelczyk and I am 22 years old. I was born in Poland but my family moved to Durban when I was 6 years old, where I attended school up to matric and started studying fine art at UKZN in Pietermaritzburg in 2006. In 2007 I received a scholarship at UKZN to go on exchange for a semester to Japan. In 2008 I moved to Cape Town, taking a gap year, and this year I have recommenced my studies of fine art at UCT.

My passion for art started at about the age of 3 when I went around the house drawing on walls and furniture and cutting shapes out of duvet covers because I thought they were interesting. At the age of 5 my mom enrolled me in art classes in Poland, every week fighting to get an obstinate 5 year old to go to class but fighting even more to get me to leave.

Since that young age my love for art has been firmly rooted in my personality and my talent has grown and developed over the years as I took art all the way through school until matric. When I matriculated there was no hesitation or confusion as to what I was going to study – it didn’t even need consideration.

Most important to the development of my talent were the oil painting classes I began to take when I was 14 years old and carried through until I moved to Pietermaritzburg to study. After being subjected to the rigidity and demands of school art, which can be tiresome, the oil painting classes reinstated my belief that art should be produced for oneself and not to please anyone else. The experience of painting for me has several variations – sometime it can be relaxing, sometimes harrowing and sometimes something akin to trance-like effect, but whatever the emotion felt I know for sure that it is something I will do for the rest of my life.

My technique of choice is oil painting, although I do also love photography. What inspires me and my subject matter is simply the world around me. There is so much inspiration to be found in the simple things that surround us, and also the rich and beautiful experiences found further afield in our diverse country. I love painting people, portraits and figures because I think the human body is one of the most beautiful constructions on this earth, and there is something special and remarkable to be found in everyone.

Recently I have been experimenting with different styles of painting, diverging from my usual photorealistic style, trying more abstract or impressionist techniques sometimes combined with photorealism. I don’t believe I have a “style” of painting as am I discovering new things about myself and my art everyday and my style develops and changes constantly.

I have not exhibited my art because I always felt that I need to have a degree or something legitimizing me as an “artist” but I have come to realise that life is too short to wait for someone to tell you that you are good at something or that you deserve it, you just have to prove it to yourself and then others will see it too. This is something I hope to do from now on, with my first step being the Walk of Art festival.


(Note – the artworks submitted for the festival and those that will be exhibited were not produced for tuition purposes at either the University of KwaZulu-Natal or the University of Cape Town)

Virginia Clarke

... was born in 1968 in Cape Town. Painting is her passion and she is a self-taught artist with no formal art training. Originally an educator by profession, she is now a home executive with the means and time to pursue her passion.

Matisse is her inspiration and favourite art master. Art to her signifies the simplistic manipulation of shape and form and the use of bold colour to enhance it. By occasionally adding an element of duality, the work reminds the observer that Art, as in Life, is not always what it seems. There is always a deeper meaning or alternate view. Her style can be labelled as playful and modern. She categorizes all her works into one of the following areas – Mind, Body, Spirit.

Michele Batchelder....

...works in oils on canvas. She will be showing her paintings at the Walk of Art Festival 2009.
Keep and eye out for a post on Michele in the near future.

It's who I am...

Bridgette Allan is one of the artists that will be showing her work at the Walk of Art
Festival in November.

She was born in Johannesburg, South Africa but lived in Europe at a young age, where she learnt an appreciation for Art, Music and Dance. This appreciation led her to study art at school, but she abandoned the idea of being an artist, for a more lucrative career.

On settling in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, she found her passion for art rekindled the makings of a painter began. When asked to describe her relationship with her art, Bridgette says: "Painting is not a job, it is not a hobby, nor is it just something I do. Painting is an extension of who I am. It is the way I describe my emotions, my thoughts, my days. My hopes are contained in the colours and the form my brush strokes make . The paintings may take the shape of a flower study or a landscape or a nude but even the very slightest smudge of colour is applied with with passion and a fascination for the effect that it creates on the blank canvas."


Although Bridgette has experimented with other media, she has found that the quick drying property of acrylics, suit her style of painting perfectly.
Her paintings are bold and dramatic and the theme is dominated by the female nude, which is her trademark, although she varies her subject matter to include bright florals that have significant tonal contrasts.

Her latest series of work, which is pictured here, was inspired by a Leonard Cohen song, Dance Me To The End Of Love. The first one is: Dance Me To The End Of Love, the second is: Dance Me Very Tenderly and the third is: Intimacy.

Bridgette has sold her work throughout South Africa via art dealers, galleries and online galleries where her work has found new homes abroad. She has had a number of solo exhibitions and is a regular exhibitor at Nashua Art in The Park, Pietermaritzburg.

We look forward to having her at the Walk of Art Festival 2009 and celebrating her creativity with her.

Going Live...

Our new website went live this afternoon.

The website is filled with all the information you would need to make a decision about taking part in the Walk of Art Festival 2009 as an artist.Our new stand options are detailed along with prices. We have additional good news in that we can now accept credit cards for stand payments.

Opportunities exist for sponsors and stakeholders, interested parties should contact us directly.
Stands only went on sale, late yesterday afternoon and the requests are already pouring in from artists. Wow, things are really hotting up and excitement is building.

Here is a quick look at the new site, but of course you can get a better look by going straight to our website.

New options for Walk of Art

The following is available for Individual Exhibitors

SCULPTORS

• Placement of sculptures throughout the garden
• Stationary including, ID cards, pens
• Free entry to auctions
• Website link to www.walk-of-art.co.za
• Access to credit card facilities

Cost:
R 1 250 (excl VAT)


OPTION 1

• 3 x 3m / ±1.8m height / 9 running meters
• Covered by waterproof Bedouin tent
• One seat, one table
• Stationary including, ID cards, pens
• Means to hang art work for paintings & photographs
• Free entry to auctions
• Website link to www.walk-of-art.co.za
• Access to PR staff to man tent during short absences
• Access to credit card facilities

Cost:
R 3 250 (excl VAT)
Stand a chance to get exhibition stand for free in a lucky draw
Multiple stands attract a discount

OPTION 2

• 3 x 1.5m / ±1.8m height / 6 running meters
• Covered by waterproof Bedouin tent
• One seat, one table
• Stationary including, ID cards, pens
• Means to hang art work for paintings & photographs
• Free entry to auctions
• Website link to www.walk-of-art.co.za
• Access to PR staff to man tent during short absences
• Access to credit card facilities

Cost:
R 2 500 (excl VAT)
Stand a chance to get exhibition stand for free in a lucky draw
Multiple stands attract a discount

OPTION 3

• ±10 Tress with means to hang art work for paintings & photographs
• Easels may be used at your own risk where space allows
• Trees within the hospitality area which is divided into 4 areas (limit to 4)
• Stationary including, ID cards, pens
• Free entry to auctions
• Website link to www.walk-of-art.co.za
• Access to credit card facilities

Cost:
R 1 250 (excl VAT)

We also have options for Retailers of complimentary products. Please enquire.

Progress

ARTISTS!!
We have been hard at work to bring you the best Art Festival that Cape Town has ever seen.
A number of different options have been designed to suit every artists pocket and always top of mind is the maximising the platform to promote the art.

Also, we've connected with Creative Cape Town and Cape Town Heritage Trust, both of which have been super helpful and supportive of this festival. As well, our website is under construction and will be going live in the next few days.

Stands go on sale next week so get ready to be involved. You definitely don't want to miss this festival.
Walk of Art Festival, November 2009 is going to be spectacular.
amanda@walkofart.co.za OR martin@walkofart.co.za

Image: Irina Riabtseva

It's been a while...

Festival Lovers, it has been a while since our last posting, but fear not. Our plans for an awesome festival are on course. Next week we are meeting with Cape Town Heritage Trust.
We are looking forward to building some healthy relationships with like minded institutions and organisations to spread the creativity and love around the City.
We have some awesome neighbours at this festival location so it is worth spending some energy making the whole equal more than the sum of the parts.
We'll keep you in the loop.


PS We can't get over it, this guy's art is just awesome... Strijdom van der Merwe and we really hope that he will come to our festival.

Venue for Walk of Art Festival

The Paddocks
Company's Garden
Government Avenue

A PAINTING vacation

I’ve heard of a lavish holiday, a beach holiday, a back-packers holiday and even a ‘follow-your-sports-team’ holiday but a painting holiday in South Africa, that was news to me...and the idea has won me over completely. The May issue of the South African Country Life magazine details a fantastic new approach to art holidays and, as with the Walk of Art Festival, nature holds a special muse to its compilation.

Imagine a holiday in the rolling hills of the Western Cape countryside, where your only care is to unleash your inner creativity and capture thought on canvas.

Your inspirations are in your surrounds – exquisite views of mountains, lakes, forests and fields. It’s exactly what Dale and Janny Elliott, of the Dale and Mel Elliot Gallery and Studio in Villiersdorp, are offering; an opportunity to awaken the soul through painting, while on holiday.

If you’re not an avid painter and have not yet had the opportunity of dabbling in the amazing art, you needn’t be too concerned. All that’s needed to succeed is a small spark of creativity, something Dale believes lies deep within each of us, a will to work and passion. The team offer guidelines and see themselves as the facilitators of the creative process. No one person is forced into painting a particular way, instead people are encouraged to adapt their own approaches and views to their artwork.

Dale and Janny’s particular course involves three days of fantastic art tuition, after which each participant will have completed five pictures. Dale also offers a manual, as well as a CD ROM, detailing the art course.

A stimulating and exciting endeavour, make your next holiday or time away a time with paint.

Where to go:

Dale and Mel Elliott Gallery and Studio
Villiersdorp
028 840 2927
dale@daleelliott.co.za
www.daleelliott.co.za

Daleen Mulder - Aylestone Creative Workshop
Barbeton Valley, Lowveld
082 341 5522
deodal@mweb.co.za

Elwyn-Harlech Jones – Steytlerville Studio
Karoo Studies
082 932 0041
hja@icon.co.za

The Cavern – Botanical art courses with guided mountain walks
Drakensberg
036 438 6270
info@cavern.co.za

Adri van Aswegen-Janse van Vuuren – Inspirational painting
West Coast, Yzerfontein
022 451 2725
a3amichadri@telkomsa.net

Andrew Munik – Tailor-made art classes
West Coast, Darling
083 325 4148
mclaughlin@worldonline.co.za

Take a drive...be inspired

The 9th annual Riebeek Valley Olive Festival will take place on Friday 1st, Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd May 2009 in the picturesque Riebeek Valley celebrating the award winning olive oils and wines from the Swartland region.

The largest of its kind in Southern Africa, the Festival is hosted by the beautiful twin hamlets of Riebeek West and Riebeek Kasteel and falls on the first weekend of May each year. The festival highlights the region’s prosperous olive industry and is also an opportunity for visitors to sample the neighbouring wine farms.

The Riebeek Valley has established itself as the primary olive oil and olive producing region in South Africa. Riebeek Kasteel not only boasts four of the top olive producers in the country, it is also home to two Italian trained olive oil graders. The wines from the Swartland are also of an extraordinary quality and very much in demand winning prestigious local and international awards.

One of the great spin offs from towns like this is that they attract many creative people. Riebeek Valley is no different. Present at the Olive Festival is the 'Artist's Village' and many of the resident artists of the Valley will be there. I think that it is actually worth taking the 45min drive from Cape Town, just to see the local talent.

When you get to the Valley, you will see exactly where the inspiration to express your essence comes from. The place is just beautiful.

Personally, I am hoping to see two of my favourite artists:
Li Nepgren

And Solly Smook

Chalk or Cheese : Park or Garden

After getting a really negative response from an interest group (a bunch of oxymorons) that have attached themselves, like a parasite to the beautiful De Waal Park, we have had to make a new arrangement for our Festival.

Have no fear!! This morning we went to present the proposal to the people at the Company's Garden, Government Avenue and I am bowled over at the positive response they had to the Festival. It is amazing how quickly we lose the feeling of excitement and enthusiasm when confronted with small minded people, but now my energy is renewed.

It was just so amazing to have ten people around a table that were open, listening, welcoming. They are creative in their jobs everyday, so I guess that is what makes them more inclined to listen and accept the concept as it is delivered. I am taking a risk here, but I have such a good feeling that things are going to go our way: the new venue for Walk of Art Festival is

The Paddocks
The Company's Garden
Government Avenue
Cape Town

Our plans have grown and we are convinced that the festival is going to be FANTASTIC.
We'll keep you up to date with developments. And look out! There are some discounts available on the stands.
As usual, if you are a visual artist and would like to be involved with the festival, email jackson@walkofart.co.za
Walk on....

Location, location, location

We've been keeping an eye on the How to plan a Party blog and must reiterate step 2 in the process.
We had some problems with the location of the Art Festival. It was only once we opened our minds and started letting the imagination flow, that we solved the problem.
Sadly, we have been prevented from using the venue that we first planned on, but have subsequently come across another location that is going to be perfect!! We are also enjoying the support of the people that manage it. Everything happens for a reason they say? I believe it!

Keep an eye out for updates on the venue.

Great ‘Walks’ of Art

Now don't think that we are getting beyond ourselves. It's not that we think that we are in the same league as the Great Artists of the Renaissance. Although, we do have great talent in areas other than painting, sculpture, architecture...

(to the point)... we are illustrating that great works (walks) take time, tolerance, flexibility, high pain thresholds and the ability to 'suck it up' (a technical term meaning: enduring the undesirable).

Enter Michelangelo with his many talents and competencies and obviously loads of the above qualities.

In 1501, at the tender age of 26 (a new age child of sorts), Michelangelo began working on (perhaps) his greatest Masterpiece after he inherited a great piece of marble, named David (with almost a pair of legs), from Agostino, whose job it was to fashion David out of the stone (until he promptly resigned). Out of a solid hunk of rigid material the Master made a man (again a hunk). A beautiful man, that the world still adores. It took him three years to complete, everyday chipping away at the stone prison until magnificence was revealed.

That is how the art festival will be: chipping away at thin air until a glorious festival celebrating talent and creativity be revealed. I guarantee it won't take nearly as long as it took the Italians to produce David (about 40 years from start to finish with a number of false starts and setbacks), but seriously, some of the 'elements' around the festival are more rigid than rock and determined to remain in the dark ages.
It is worth remembering that David won the battle against Goliath (where's his statue?).

Then, my personal favourite, the Sistine Chapel Ceiling. Michelangelo, now only 33 years old in 1508, begins by erecting a scaffolding. He climbs on up and The Creation begins, as well as the Downfall of Man and The Promise of Salvation. The result of nearly four years of hard slog, aside from giving him a crick in the neck (which I can relate to in terms of the obstacles we've encountered so far) is indescribable (I know, I've just sat here trying to describe it's astonishing beauty). See? Time, flexibility (required to get to the top of the scaffolding and stay there for hours at a time), high pain threshold (to live through the pain in the neck).

Our brand of flexibility has been more specific to being able to adapt in the face of uncontrollable circumstances and asinine opposition. However, the pain in the neck hasn't changed much in 500 years.

Now a lesson in 'sucking it up': In 1546, Pope Paul III appoints Big M, aged 72 (old man, enlightened) architect of St Peter's Basilica. The foundation stone had been laid in 1506. Many people before Michelangelo had worked on it's plans and quite a few after him. It seems he was not terribly excited about commencing work on this commission (I am fairly certain that at the age of 72, I probably wouldn't be able to get up the energy for much more than walking the dog in the park). Michelangelo wrote "I undertake this only for the love of God and in honour of the Apostle."
The Basilica was eventual complete on 18 November 1626, 62 years after Michelangelo death. (November is an auspicious month when it comes to great walks of art.

It seems that sucking it up can produce amazing splendor and in the case of Walk of Art it will too, long before we shuffle off.

- Amanda