Painting Compulsion

This South African artist who paints because she feels compelled to sells many of her paintings … and also gives some of them away to people who love them for what they are.

- Constance Robertson

Johannesburg in South Africa was my birthplace. I now live at Heidelberg in the Western Cape Province of South Africa, and I paint full-time.

I attended Rhodes University at Grahamstown, to study for a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree, tutored by Professors Brian Bradshaw and Robert Brook. Subsequently, I completed two courses in Ceramic Sculpture with Charles Gotthard; four years of ‘unlearning’ technical illustration habits with Wendy Martell; and a Stained Glass Techniques course with Marise Mill.

Becoming one with the sea or the mountains or fields is what I am passionate about when painting … being in ‘the zone’.

I’ve scribbled, drawn and painted ever since I can remember, something I realised when I was sorting through boxes of my mother’s treasures after she died. She had kept every little ‘present’ I had ever given her; some from before I went to school.

When my own children were young, I began a technical career as a draughtswoman. I soon discovered that my artwork had become hopelessly stylised. Sitting in a Ghanaian rainforest, surrounded by multitudes of butterflies, I realised that I had to paint to fulfill a part of me which had been neglected for too many years.

I returned to South Africa and spent four years with Wendy Martell, using only pastels. I stopped obsessing about perfect lines and angles. Soon I started to sell my art, and the more I escaped ‘being precious’, the more my work improved.

I’m not sure if I should call myself a hobby artist or a professional; I paint because I feel compelled to. I never do it to while away my time; or in order to have an income. I sell my paintings, but I also give them away to those who love them for what they are.