A while ago we visited Velddrif for a short art tour.
On this day we decided to pay Tereza Harling a visit at her studio. I heard about this artist’s stunning work and decided to go and look for myself.
The studio occupies the top floor of Tereza’s home. She is one of those passionate artists whom you can see is painting because it is part of her life. Her work is versatile, diverse and expressionistic. She works in various mediums from acrylic, mixed mediums, pastels and charcoal but mostly in oils.
There is a story behind each painting, not one of them is “just another painting”
There is one painting I liked in particular.
The painting titled ‘Steel Promises’, painted round 2002. I think that today the meaning behind this painting is more relevant than 7 years ago. It is all about the fight between industrial development and conserving our natural environment, and hope tempered by reality.
Steel Prommises By Tereza Harling
Here is the story behind the painting:
“Have you ever noticed the NG Kerk in Vredenburg?? I remember it when it used to be painted clean and white. A noble looking building and a focal point in Vredenburg. After Saldanha Steel started operations, the church, and many houses in in the village, began to show red iron ore dust stains running down the walls from gutters and window sills. Since then the church has been painted a terra cotta pink so that these stains would not show up so starkly. If you look around you will see many houses in Vredenburg also painted a pinkish or earth colour to disguise the red dust disfiguring the homes and buildings.
Starting at the top of the painting, the red colour going across the top of the painting and down both sides, like red velvet curtains setting a stage. This ‘curtain’ is a cloud of red iron dust that settles on the land for miles around.
The lovely blue sky is the area around the factory, which is ‘GOOD AND CLEAN AND FRESH” (like the well know soap commercial). This, of course, is total fantasy. The Spin Doctors played down the impact of the red iron ore dust in the atmosphere. They emphasized, instead, how prosperity was being bought to the area, all the jobs and productivity the new factory would generate.
There you see the moon, calm, peaceful, it does not change. Night after night, season after season, it moves across the sky. How often do we notice it? The moon comes and goes, like the factory workers, it is just doing its job.
The factory itself is bathed in a soft misty light. Like the mists of time that soften our memories and intentions. We have become used to its presence, to the conditions. It no longer bothers us; we just get on with our lives. The factory is there and that is that.
The light from the factory is shed over the surrounding land, that is like the prosperity promissed to the people, yet all that most of us see of this prosperity is the red iron ore dust that covers our houses, dirties our clean washing and kills some of our plants. That dust is blown everywhere and seeps in and down to the very roots of the grass, red and sticky and greasy.
See those five little white Arum lilies in the left foreground. They represent the five working days a week that most people would enjoy under normal circumstances, following on the heels of the promissed jobs. The lilies also represent the environment; the further away from the factory the better they bloom. Beautiful spotless white lilies, away from the canopy of red iron ore dust. White lilies of the veldt and the roadside.
The church to the right is in darkness. The pastor, dressed in black is sitting on the roof of the church. He is represented by an owl, an icon of wisdom. He does not look to the factory for his well being, he looks across to the angel. This wise man knows about truth and honesty, of other promises he believes in. Once upon a time the church used to be the focal point in the hearts of the people, now it is the factory, which comes under the spotlight.
And lastly, on the left is the angel. He looks on and sees all that is happening. The angel knows that with time all are judged by the same standards. His reminds us that we are not just made of up body and mind, but also of spirit and it is the spirit that will last forever”
That is typical of Tereza’s paintings, there is always a story to be read in them.
Visits to Tereza’s studio are by appointment only.
She may be contacted on 022-783-1817 or by email at harling@xsinet.co.za
You can view some of her work at http://www.southafricanartists.com
Tereza Harling