ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Marcella de Boom (1945-2009) was a South African artist who preferred media was acrylic and watercolour. She grew up in Pretoria and graduated with a BA Fine Arts from the University of Pretoria. Her works have been exhibited in countless solo and group exhibitions in South Africa, Namibia, Germany and Canada. She spent her time in Cullinan, where she lived in a cobhouse-cum-art gallery that she herself had built and that took a year to finish.
"I look upon my watercolours as poems – smaller work (landscapes or nudes) done quickly on the spot. The acrylics are like novels – bigger, worked on for a longer period of time, layered. Here I usually explore a poetic or mythological theme." She often listened to Bach every morning "to purify the soul".
In her work, she tries to tie the mythological-poetic with reality. The narrative of a painting is as important to her as the visual. She sees every painting as a search for the truth as well as a creation of beauty.
How I met Marcella
I grew up in Durban (Kwa-Zulu Natal), studied in East London (Eastern Cape), then on to Cape Town. In Cape Town I worked as a manager of a restaurant. Cape town was fun, but I really couldn't keep working in restaurants for ever, I wanted to return to the arts.
So I quit my job and moved to Pretoria and moved in with my mom, set up a small studio space at home. My mom has a sense of adventure and a love of art and had met Marcella on a day excursion about an hour outside of Pretoria. Within a week of landing in Pretoria, I went to Cullinan to meet Marcella, we got along immediately and she offered to let me come every Saturday for 6 months and work in her garden studio, where she could assist, advise and support me with my paintings.
Marcella had built herself a cob house with a gallery attached in Cullinan, she was an artist already in her 60's I met her.
Stained glass built into the cob walls and organic shapes form shelves and cubbys
Her garden filled with ceramic sculptures and a gazebo made of found objects where we would sit and have lunch and chat.
Here would chat about life, our past, our difficulties, our thoughts and dreams and about art.
Images Sourced From: https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/name-marcella-79707#_
Marcella was an acrylic artist. She painted surreal, colourfilled scenes on board. The kind of scenes you wished you could step into and get lost in.
Breakfast in bed 2007
Summerlight
Man wat vir die klippe preek (A man that preaches to stones)
Lemontree
Ontmoeting in 'n straat met Jakarandas (meeting in a street with Jacarandas)
Images Sourced From: http://www.art.co.za
My 6 months was up... my last Saturday with her, we got into her old beat up bakkie (car) with her 3 dogs and drove a couple of blocks to the edge of town and the open veld spread out before us. Us and the dogs headed off into the veld and up the koppies (rock out crops), the dogs played while we chatted for a last time about life, our past, our difficulties, our thoughts and dreams and about art.
When we got back to her house she presented me with a painting she had secretly been working on, a portrait of me and all we had talked about.
Title: Om die Monsters in te Perk (Keeping the Monsters in)
Less than a month later she took her dogs for their usual walk in the veld and had a heart attack in her car just before going home.
I treasure the time she gave me and all I learnt from her. She remains an inspiration.
Other sites featuring Marcella de Boom
https://www.countrylife.co.za › Leisure › Arts & Crafts
https://www.vangoart.co/marcella-de-boom
artthrob.co.za/05may/listings_gauteng.html
https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/name-marcella-79707