VERY few artists can say they have celebrated six decades as a professional sculptress. But South African Maureen Quin is one of the rare gems. From bronze sculptures to drawings, art lovers can feast their eyes on some fascinating art this weekend at the Artisan Gallery on Florida Road. The exhibition which features Quin’s bronzes will also see well known artist Carol Brown as the guest speaker. There will be two walkabouts, one on Monday and the other on July 3.
Quin shares her lengthy journey through art with Tonight. She says her earliest memories include drawing, colouring and using clay found on the banks of the dam on a farm in Bloemfontein where she was born and raised.
Asked when exactly she realised that art was something she wanted to pursue as a career rather than just a hobby, the artist says: “How do you know when you make ‘life’ decisions? I imagine it was when I won a bursary in matric at Eunice Girls’ School in Bloemfontein to go to Durban Technical College Art School.”
In terms of the exhibition, she says it’s a small retrospective to support the intro-duction of the definitive book on her work: Quin Sculpture; Six Decades of Excellence. The book reveals and discusses her development, tenacity and passion. The introduction is written by Muller Ballot and includes essays by Elizabeth Rankin and Helena Theron, among others. Quin’s inspiration is the human form and the relationships between man and his predicament.
As for her sculptures, Quin reveals that they begin with a vague emotion, either of disgust or pleasure: “I play around with an idea until it takes shape. I will then sketch the concept from all angles until I feel it is sculpturally viable – that it is pleasing compositionally in form and space – and that it conveys my thoughts sufficiently. Next a small sketch model is sculpted where the sculpture is worked out in more detail. Once I am satisfied with this, I enlarge it to the final size, by constructing a sturdy armature onto which the sculpture is modelled in clay or plaster. If the work is large, the bulk is filled in polystyrene first, before applying the modelled surface. When I am totally satisfied with the sculpture, a flexible mould is taken and it goes to an art foundry to be cast into bronze.
“I visit the foundry during the casting process to check the quality of the cast and to finish the surface of the bronze cast. Finally, the sculpture is patinated and mounted on a base.”
On the exhibition, Quin says: “I hope that the public will enjoy my work and that they will trace my years of sculpting by referring both the works on exhibition and the book.”
l The exhibition runs from Sunday to July 3 at the Artisan Gallery. Call Ingrid at 031 312 4364.