Greetings fellow art lovers!
Today is going to be a short and simple post to invite in the weekend!
I wanted to share the first piece that I considered to be a (commercial) success in my artistic portfolio. A couple of years ago I decided to enter a very popular art competition in South Africa known as the Sasol New Signatures. This competition exists as a platform for emerging artists from all over South Africa to submit their work and stand the chance to be featured in a prestigious exhibition. If your work is chosen as the overall winner, you are given a platform to exhibit a solo at the next years' competition, in addition to the group exhibition of the overall selected works. I guess all of this background information isn't necessary but I think it paints a good picture of the prestige associated with the event.
At any rate, I remember deciding to enter the competition for the first time in 2015. My hopes were not particularly high of being selected but I took the chance anyway. Around this time, I had been making art for a couple of years already but had only recently started to take it seriously as an undertaking. I received confirmation that my artwork had been selected as one of the finalists and would be featured in the group exhibition (and an associated catalogue).
I didn't know it then, but this selection served as an impetus and a much needed validation for my artistic pursuit. It was after this competition that I truly started believing in my merit as an artist. I knew I had a lot of growing to do and that there was still a long way to go but it gave me confidence in my journey.
Here is the piece in question:
2015
Charcoal, Ink and Gouache on Paper
82 cm x 123 cm
It seems the rationale for this piece has been lost in time. Looking back at the piece now, I can see how my craft and artistic approach has grown and I look forward to reflecting on the work I produce now and seeing that same growth in time.
Let me know what you think! As always thanks for reading!
