art-ist

Living with Nature through Art

Annabelle Venter is an award-winning Namibian ceramicist, photographer and writer. Featuring carefully detailed animals and colourful birds, set on the rims of ceramic bowls and cups, Annabelle’s tableware has captured the imagination of buyers locally and internationally. In the last twoNational Ceramic Biennales she was awarded second and third place respectively in the sculpture category. One of her pieces was added to the Namibia Art Association’s permanent collection.

Annabelle’s passion for ceramics started slowly, growing from an introduction to the craft as a child, after which she didn’t touch clay again for many years. “I ordered my first top-loading kiln in 1998 and started teaching myself [again] by trial and error,” she says. “No internet to quickly Google things in those days! I used books and The Potters Association of Namibia to learn my craft.” It was while living in Omaruru that nature came knocking on her door, or rather, her window, to inspire her now signature faunainspired pieces. “I remember red-billed hornbills tapping insistently on my studio window when we lived in Omaruru. And one day I just crafted a bird to sit on top of what I was making. It evolved from there, as we had amazing birdlife in our garden on the riverbank. Each new bird I observed found its way onto a pot.”

Her interest, she notes, is capturing fleeting moments in nature through any medium she has access to. “I find the three things I do, pottery, photography and writing about nature, weave together and complement each other so well.” But it’s not only about putting her passion into an artform that brings her joy: it’s bringing that joy to other people, and ceramics are one of the simplest ways to do that. “I want people to live with art and nature every day instead of just in bland concrete boxes with mass-produced objects that everyone else has. Each cup or mundane utility item can be beautiful and should give you a joyful pause in your day when you use it.”

The secret lies not in letting your work define you but being open to new ideas and following them to see where they lead.

And for Annabelle there is something powerful about connecting to nature, something which anyone can do.

“One doesn’t have to travel to the bush to find stunning grasses or flowers on the pavement or in your yard, or a colourful weaver building next door in a tree. We just have to learn to look differently at our environment.” But of course, for Annabelle, the ability to look at things differently is all in a day’s work. “The secret,” she says, “lies not in letting your work define you but being open to new ideas and following them to see where they lead.”

Annabelle’s first exhibition in South Africa will be a solo show at the MOK Gallery at Muratie Wine Estate in Stellenbosch in December 2020. For more information: www.annabelleventer.com

Nina van Zyl