Dirk van der Merwe - "Distant Rain"
TV travel show inspired me to honour these majestic yet gentle animals.
God created everything. Then He created man. He created man in His image. Thus man has the desire to create. When I look at a white canvas the desire to create my own world is overwhelming. There is an excitement and a happiness running through my body and soul that I can't control. I have to paint. It is like a drug. When I am not able to get to my studio as often as I would like I find myself 'painting' in my mind's eye and creating the most beautiful painting. Before I start a new painting I mull it over and over in my mind. I suppose I am in the planning phase. It is such a rush that I find myself moving my hand as if I am holding a brush. Only to feel slightly embarrassed that I am nowhere near a canvas. Once I am able to make that first brush stroke I am in my own bubble. The paint, the colours, the strokes, the birth of a new world on the canvas transports me to a blissful state of mind. Time stands still and joy saturates my body and soul.
I paint everything and anything in South Africa and the world around me. Sometimes it is the colours that grab me. Sometimes it is lines and shadows. It could also be the emotions or feelings evoked by a certain situation or event. It seems that I go through short periods of preference for a specific topic. Perhaps it is cows and then I will do cows for a while and then it might be mountains and it will be mountains for a while.
Just like any child I went through the stages of drawing stick figures and graduated to crayons and water colours in my early teen years. I did my first oil painting in my teens and have never stopped. Mainly self taught although I did briefly receive some guidance from Peter van Blommenstein in Durban in the seventies.
What style do I adhere to?
In the field of creation such as oil painting I find it difficult to understand how an artist can be put in a box. The very nature of creating something inherently implies experimentation. Thus, my style is that I don't have a style. Variety is after all the spice of live!