Inge Du Plessis Berkshire, United Kingdom
I came to professional painting relatively in life. After 4 years, completing a degree in Fine Art at the University of Cape Town, I decided to forgo art and became a cabinetmaker through apprenticeship. At 30 I left it all behind to paint full time. I still teach once a week to support my painting. I try to do a few group shows a year and aim for a solo show at least every two years.
My painting style is figurative; representational yet relishing the texture and movement of brush and oil paint. This feels like a time of rapid growth as a painter. I am learning so much about technique, yet, perhaps thanks to growing older, I also feel more relieved from the constant tug toward realism. My work deals with memory, retelling stories and making visual connections between events and perceptions. Sometimes reimagining history. In terms of subject matter, most of my paintings involve people within a suggested narrative. My paintings represent a condensed allegory, history or tale, suggesting action that preceded the moment or something that is about to happen. I also use a language of private visual symbolism - objects and elements alive with history and association. I have a fondness for portraiture, often painting self-portraits. For my process, I rely on visual, rather than verbal concepts to start a series or, if there is an idea she wants to pursue, it is broad and overarching rather than specific to each painting. More often than not, an idea or meaning clarifies itself through the process of painting and visual decision making.
