Published on the occasion of Between Two Palms: New works from Durban by
Georgina Gratrix18 May - 29 June 2024
Stevenson Johannesburg 46 7th Avenue
Parktown North 2193
1
Consider the Lobster , 2024 — I thought of making the most Durban still life. It would be by the sea. The umbrella to shade it from the sweat inducing all year round sun was borrowed from Pascal’s garden. She has little umbrellas for her plants that get opened to protect them from the mid day beams. The flowers for
me in this work take forms of sweets or toys or become ice cream. The lobster a historically important conundrum for any still life painter here enters the milieu. The title is borrowed from a David Foster Wallace collection of short essays where the author asks us to empathise with the lobster and its fate. As I say: Friends not food.
2 The Welsh Hat , 2024 — My husband’s great grandfather invented the rules for rugby. Hence, we have a display cabinet full of these peculiar tasseled velvety caps which seem very impractical to wear when being tackled.
3 Mom and her heart earrings , 2024 — Earrings and scarf I bought for her as gifts in Mexico City. Rike loves to tell stories. Here she is smiling and thoughtful at the same time.
4
Bossy Painting/ Motivational Flowers , 2024 — The work was something unfinished that I brought with to my new studio. It had dried and sat a bit abandoned for some time. I liked the idea of a painting doing something other than looking pretty on a wall. In this case reminding me to make use of my gym subscription. Also looking at a painting is contemplative in nature, so what to do with a painting that demands action?
5 The Green Studio , 2024 — Earlier this year painting in a large, half renovated room lacking doors and windows in my old-always-being-reconstructed farm house in Cape Town, I began to think where I could make my next body of work for my upcoming show. A windowless room in winter doesn’t quite hold the same charm as it does in summer even if it’s nice that the birds come inside very often which I love. Just then Pascale Chandler sent me a message. A Durban artist and art world figure, we had stayed in touch over the years. I had learnt to paint in her garden
studio. She sent me a link that her house was for sale which made me wonder if her studio was being used. We called - no it wasn’t - so my Durban residency in her garden began. The green room was the first work I made here. This studio in her Durban garden has large sliding doors and all the trees and outside foliage and orchids seem desperate to come inside. The objects I painted I borrowed some from my mother’s house and others pieces from my friend Cameron platter that I admired. Vintage Ardmore some Rorke’s Drift. And some of his own pieces. Objects that speak of this place I
don’t always live in but very much feel at home in. Pascale, when I arrived in the studio filled with so many of her things and books, pointed me to her book on Matisse and we poured over it together. Our conversations and my drive to the studio from Morningside to Glenwood every day. The old fig tree in front of the studio. All of these elements came in whilst making The Green studio which at one point more accurately had white walls but didn’t fit at all the feeling of the room.
6 Mom with clasped hands, 2024 — Once again my mom holding court about to launch into a narrative usually related to past travels or current trips she is booking for a client.
7 Between Two Palms; A Painters Lunch , 2024 — Our house is always a meeting point and a place of gathering. And my husband and I have hosted more lunches than I can recall. Perhaps both coming from KZN there is something about hospitality that we share. He likes to cook and hide in the kitchen and I like to host. In this painting a painters lunch I bring together an unusual array of characters. Penny Siopis is in the center as the conversationalist. Jo Ann Strauss for glamour and her support and passion for the arts. Christopher peter
at the back is always the dream guest and host. From lavender table settings and outrageous floral bouquets. Lewis the collector to drink tea and do the unexpected. I’m sure Hodgin’s Ubu would be cantankerous and drink too much. Maud Sumner’s unfortunately titled Fat Lady . Jody Paulsen a dear friend. Andrew Verster who I never had the opportunity to meet but has been an enormous in fluency on my practice as an extraordinary colourist. Gladys Mgudlandlu especially for her birds. Behind a bouquet of flowers, myself, Pascale chandler
in her spotty leopard coat is in the gathering as she has been so present for the making of all this work and a pillar of the Durban art scene the past 40 years. Marlene Dumas with her bottled blonde hair who wouldn’t want her at a painters lunch.
8 Rubbish Day , 2024 — In early March Durban’s refuse workers were on strike. Rubbish day became an ever pressing matter of concern and interest. For many weeks, all conversation centered around whether the rubbish would be collected that day. Rubbish day finally did arrive later that month.
9 The School Girl , 2024 — Finding a photograph of myself in my pig tails and green primary school uniform. The pet parrot peeking through the mask as a triangle of grey. All the people I would become.
10 Group Chat, 2024 — My favourite time of day in Durban is around 5 pm when driving through the Berea the trees are weighted with bird noise. Here is a close up a conversation of one gathering.
11 Packed Lunch , 2024 — A painting about my mother making me a lunch every day to take to the studio. Something she hasn’t done in 20 years. About the flowers my mother arranges in the house. A painting about us.
12 Word Game , 2024 — The painting has three words scrambled. Each word its own colour which connects to the theme of this exhibition. Yes I do the wordle every day as well as spelling bee and the New York Times crossword. Friday evenings you can find me by a scrabble board.
13 Good Hair Day , 2024 — Some artists have never made a self portrait and I have made perhaps too many. But it’s about stretching and pulling features trying to find a shape or form that suits the present moment and I am never offended by the outcome. Here too many teeth provide a feeling of looking for and perhaps failing to find the right words but at least the hairs ok.
14 The Neighbours , 2024 — Red roofs of Morningside. Not pictured a Porsche and generational wealth.
15 Squirrel Jug and Belgian Ashtray , 2024 —
These were objects already in the Durban studio belonging to Pascale. There are a number of painters before me that have passed through Pascal’s studio that have painted this jug and I wanted to be part of this tradition.
