Sue Conradie lives in Cape Town and as well as being artist she writes poetry, often using her poetry as a starting point for her paintings.
She prefers to allow her paintings to form from an organic process with little to no pre-planning, but rather to begin by "doodling" with paint on board or canvas. By sketching quickly she says she avoids over analysis as well as over working a surface in this way the work always appears fresh.
In Sue's statements she explains that she wishes to express the power of human beings, rather than superstition or religious dogma. That people need to start understanding that the human race is a part of nature.
Images Sourced From:
https://www.stateoftheart-gallery.com/artists/213/sue-conradie
https://www.facebook.com/sue.conradie.7
My Thoughts:
How is it that humans, with our intellect and accumulated knowledge still don't get the fundamental reality of the natural order. That we continue to arrogantly believe that we are above it. We continue to destroy with little thought to consequence. Now though we are beginning to see the consequences and now we want to rally to save the planet. I truly truly hope it's not too little too late.
Sue manages in her paintings to draw the viewer in by using a monochromatic palette and intricate pattern with simple line, there is little to distract the eye. We become part of her world, our world, a view of the source of life. If one believes in evolution (which I do), organisms began in aquatic worlds.
Then developing into more complex multi celled organisms.
Even now though, our land based animals which include ourselves cannot survive without the tiny organisms that live in our oceans. With 90% of earth consisting of water, it is in the water that billions of life giving organisms support us and it's us that continue to destroy their environment and therefore our own. How idiotic we are.
I can only be grateful to people like Sue who continue to show us the beauty and try and remind us that we are not above nature, but part of it. That the world can continue without us in it is obvious, in fact it would thrive without us, but we cannot survive without nature.
Back to the art itself. I love these paintings. Usually my natural inclination is toward works with loads of detail, but here in Sue's work there is an illusion of detail when in actual fact it's simply line and overlapping line and mark making.
The same appears in the sense of depth created, while in she's only really working on two maybe three planes, with no perspective used which usually creates depth. Genius
Contact Details for Sue Conradie:
https://www.facebook.com/sue.conradie.7
[email protected]
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