ANNA STONE: PRINCE ALBERT ICONS IN SOFT POWDER PASTEL Words by Elza Miles www.princealbertgallery.co.za
Above: Joanna walking in Mark Street, Pastel on cotton, 62cm x 36,5cm. Opposite Page: Rosiland Botes, Soft Pastel on Cotton, 56cm x 720
Dorothy Kay (1886-1964), the doyen of Port Elizabeth artists, observed: “Whatever you do, it is a portrait of yourself”. This too applies to the writer of this text.
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nna Stone always knew that she wanted to be an artist. She grew up in Kuruman where she was born in 1971, matriculated in Johannesburg at the Art School, Hoërskool Die Kruin, and furthered her studies in Pretoria at the Technikon (Tswana Technicon) where after acquiring the National Diploma she gained the National Higher Diploma in BA Fine Arts. Stone engages with her Prince Albert icons the moment she applies pastels on cotton. Every step of this engagement involves her: the preparation of the cotton acquired in Knysna that supports the image that evolves from the application of her pastels until the image responds and engages with her and subsequently the viewer.
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When the heavy curtains of Sunday Afternoon, Prince Albert are drawn the stage is ready: the performance starts. Joanna, Mark Straat takes the stage. She in her polo neck jersey is portrayed in the profile. Her smashingly vibrant personality is counteracted by another profile, the Volkswagen further back to the right. Both profiles are offset by the greenery of the foliage above the Beetle and further back. Somehow the car seems to be waiting for the girl: she, an imaginary Cinderella, is to slip into and drive away with her dream prince. Then the scene moves to Nieuwe Straat, Jannie and Rosalind appear. Jannie sits in the kitchen and stares in front of him. Both his hands are nestled on the curve of his walkingstick. His stool is in front of their electric stove on which two sauce pans are visible. He seems hemmed in by the stove, the diagonal of the table on the left and the curtain on the right.
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