INSIGHTConstance Robertson
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.
By Constance RobertsonJ
ohannesburg 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
fulfil 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.SoonI started to sell my art, and the
moreI escaped‘being precious’, the more my
work improved.