Marlene Dickerson - Leading South African Artist

Great art should be shared.

Featuring South African Artist Marlene Dickerson.

Works of Art spanning
the past 5 decades

Sorted by Category, Medium and Date, the works of Art by Marlene Dickerson show the colour, the vibrancy, the moods and the diversity of South Africa through the eyes of the artist over a period of 4 decades.

Collections

Explore South Africa through the Eyes of the Artist

Seascape

Wonder and Beauty

Floral

Passion and Love

Wildlife

Majesty and Power

Contemporary

Friendship and Togetherness

Africa

Beauty and Wonder

Landscape

Pure and Natural

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Prolog: Marlene Dickerson

It all started back in about 1973 when Marlene Dickerson’s was given a book called ‘The Impressionists’ by William Gaunt. The interest was immediate and was sparked by a paintings by Degar which featured a rowing boat with two people.

This inspired Marlene to put paint to board and her inherent talent was on display for all to see.

Encouraged by her husband Chris, she enrolled in an art course at the Johannesburg Technical College under the tuition of Phil Botha. Phil Botha was so impressed by Marlenes first efforts based on the Degas paintings that he gave her the nickname of ‘Van Gochi’ (or little van Goch) and this stuck for the 3 years that she spent at the technical college (1973 to 1976).

An Impression [1973] by Marlene Dickerson

Marlene has always had a strong interest in line and form with a particular interest in the beauty of creation. So she enrolled in a course by George Boys where the subjects were nudes (usually female). Her talent and eye for beauty are clearly demonstrated in her Nudes.

At one point Marlene started sculpture and found a strong interest in this art form but was ultimately drawn back to painting and drawing. There are no known examples of Marlene’s sculpture in existence.

The rest is history and the many hours of hard work coupled with enormous talent are on display in this website for all to see.

I hope you enjoy her work as much as I do.

Clinton

Genesis of Art

Art is an abstraction. which stems from the unconscious, it is said that “the senses deform and the mind forms”

Composition

There is a horizontal line towards infinity and at a curve which stems towards creation; the artist chooses the composition with careful observation of the forces at play to produce an end result which satisfies the eye of the beholder.

Colour

Life is colourful and we are privileged to be able to identify and enjoy the different colours and hues that appear before the seeing eye. For an artist to paint colour is being able to access in the recesses of the unconscious mind a method of blending of pigment towards producing a harmonious and satisfying result, which will be both rhythmic and pleasing to the eye as light is captured within the spectrum of color; strange but true, colour is technically classified as being an optical phenomenon.

Form

The word ‘form’ establishes the shape and spacial elements in a painting. It is interesting to note that the word “image” is implicit in the word ‘imagination” ; therefore, using imagination the artist has free rein to symbolically represent his thought in any way he wishes. The important aim of the artist being to clothe his mind idea into a finished result.

Great art should be shared.

Prolog: Marlene Dickerson

Genesis of Art

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