My son, Lantz, once asked me “where is ‘there’ Mom?” I replied “ I will know when I get there!” This has been my mantra for many years.
As a young child I loved drawing and colouring in. I have always wanted to be an artist and kept telling myself that one day I would get there.
Online art groups and courses as well as online shops are a huge bonus for someone like me who lives ‘out in the sticks’.
‘Showing up’ gained me two free scholarships by 2 different overseas artists. I learnt volumes from both these artists.
I enter watercolour competitions to support groups that are encouraging us to appreciate and learn watercolour.
Competitions force me to push my boundaries and contributes to keeping me inspired.
The fun of knowing I have entered and judging for myself who I perceive to be a winner has increased my eye for art. Encouraging friends to enter adds to the fun!
I prefer to call myself a ‘hobby artist’ rather than a professional. It helps take the pressure off my constitution which tends to be in constant search of excellence. This is not easily achieved while learning.
Having different art styles and techniques swimming around in my brain causes quite a bit of confusion. There are days I feel as though I am wading through a flood and being washed backwards!
Although I paint in all mediums I find Watercolour a huge challenge. I love the ‘happy accidents’ that I create when allowing the pigment and water to do their own thing. Very exciting and lots of fun!
Finding Lena Gemzoe on YouTube during Lockdown and trying out her style has been a huge win for me.
It made it possible for my art to be exhibited at The Gallery and sell to people I have never met.
In 2023 my abstract watercolour painting, ‘Gold Dust’ became an International award winning painting. A big thank you to WASA for introducing me to ‘Women in Watercolor’.
By now you must be wondering who I am and where do I hail from?
I am currently retired in the tiny village of Mtunzini, KZN., South Africa. I celebrate my 75th birthday in January 2024.
I was born and raised on a farm west of the small town of Eshowe, KZN, South Africa. I attended boarding school from class 1 to matric. I achieved in art during my junior school years. Art was not available as a subject in High School.
My Dad did not believe in girls studying. Being a housewife and mother did not need qualifications! A job at the bank it had to be until Mr Right came along.
I later worked for a firm of accountants until my family no longer needed my financial assistance. This allowed me to retire and look forward to pursuing my art full time and not just a once a week evening class with Diamond Bozas. Diamond was a wonderful mentor. He mentored art groups right up until just before his 94th birthday.
‘Gremlins’ happened and full time art had to be postponed but not forgotten.
Mike, my late husband, took centre stage and I became a full time carer. His lungs started deteriorating very quickly. We used our own initiative and banned all toxins and stopped him working with cement.
It took specialists a few years to work out why a non-smoker had developed issues with his lungs. After numerous tests he was diagnosed with inherited Alpha-1 Antitrypsin deficiency. Our children and grandchildren have inherited this deficiency.
Mike became a miracle and legend amongst his friends and family. His attitude went a long way to help us all stay positive and make the best of a bad situation. He saw 18 years after being given 6 months to live.
During his last 5 years Eshowe’s altitude, even though he was on oxygen equipment, become too high for his lungs to cope efficiently.
My late sister, Myrtle Hall, a highly talented unique artist, 2 years previous to her death, wrote Mike’s eulogy. My son read it at his funeral. It has a valuable message for us all and that is why I am including it here.
Quote taken from the Eulogy to Mike – written by Myrtle Hall in 2016. Mike died May 2019.
“We’ve touched on some of his qualities, yet the most outstanding of all was his huge struggle with Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.
Mike burned with a passion to live and to do so, as normally as possible despite his handicap. The move to Mtunzini in 2014 became a must. Sea level gave him hope to gain a few more years.
The sun rose and Mike would feel an amp of “well” and he would be out there to serve the course of his livelihood. His contribution towards Marian’s garden was to supervise the building of a terrace using old tyres.
He so appreciated Charl, his son-in-law, popping in for advice. It made him feel he had not lost it totally.
He never complained or asked for pity. In fact his efforts were selfless. His dream was the shed come art studio being built for his ‘girls’.
He watched its progress from the veranda opposite.
He went into hospital often and as a family we could not be blamed for feeling “Surely, this must be the end”. And yet he rallied, overcame and conquered. Collectively we named him “The Warhorse”!!
He has left a legacy of courage and determination.”
Having to leave our home of over 45 years, was heart breaking. I had established my beautiful Eshowe garden from scratch. It overlooked the family farm where I had grown up. The view stretched all the way to the distant hills of Mbongolwane towards Nkandla.
In Mtunzini we were truly blessed to find 3 Foxon Avenue. An acre of unestablished land with a very old house on it. We replaced one view with a similar view. My precious gardener of over 21 years slipped and potted plants to help me establish my new Foxon garden.
I never dreamt that one day people would want to come and look at my garden. I don’t think it will ever be finished or perfect. Mike said my gardens were my biggest paintings!
Once a week I made time for my art by continuing up the hill to Eshowe to attend Diamond’s art group. Fortunately I was working on my large ‘Melmoth Aloes’ oil painting commission. This made it easy for me to pick up and put down. It took me 4 years to finish it. I started it in the kitchen in my old home and continued working on it in the kitchen of our new old home in Foxon Avenue.
A watercolour still life painting, set up on the deep freeze in the old home kitchen, had to be completed within 3 days.
2017 my studio in Mtunzini was complete.Mike bought our 2 daughters, Shelley and Theresa, and me each an easel and encouraged us to paint more before he left us.
Before departing in 2019 he insisted we had to apply to exhibit at the Hilton Arts Festival. The week after he died we received the email confirming that we had been accepted.
We had not attended a Hilton Arts Festival previously and were overwhelmed at all the beautiful art on display. We were in fact extremely embarrassed by our naïve art and had it not been for Mike’s wish we might have run away rather than exhibit our paintings. People visiting our stand made it worth our while to be there. We were extremely busy and sold plenty of art.
We soon realized that not everybody was looking for major professional art. Theresa, my youngest daughter, who only started painting in 2017, was the first to sell a painting on our stand. She is invariably always the first.
Marian Mattinson, International Award winning artworks
I have been fortunate during the past 2 years to have won 3 International watercolour awards. I am still getting over the shock of having my art noticed. I have been fascinated that what I thought might be winners are not and what I least expected to win did.
After winning my 3rd International Watercolour award my son asked “Are you ‘there’ now?”
We will never really ‘Get There’. It is all about enjoying the journey!
In closing, I share a quote from Brenda of ‘Studio 56’. ‘Let’s feed our creative souls because that’s who we are and we deserve to feel that great sense of contentment that artists can only feel when we have made art.’
Keep painting and enjoy the journey of ‘getting there’!
Marian Mattinson (Gunter)
WASA representative in Mtunzini, KwaZulu-Natal
