Sue Kaplan

Which new trends or South African artists do you find inspiring at the moment?
I'm always interested in new painters who work with a more embodied style of painting and are less figurative. Examples such as Grace Cross, Zolile Petshane, Ian Grose, Fanie Buys, or Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi. I'm also into abstract collage artists, like Sitaara Stodel and various performance artists such as Sethembile Msezane.

Which South African deceased artist do you most admire and why?
So many artists were taken tragically young….but I guess as an academic who wrote about art, a stand out might be Colin Richards and a deceased artist whose work I loved is Robert Hodgins. I also loved Helen Martins, an outsider artist who made the Owl House. I love outsider art.

If you could only have one piece of art in your life, what would it be?
Michael Armitage is first on my list, but also a Mohau Modisakeng, or a Genieve Figgis or an Anthony Cudahy…or a Zanele Muhole painting ooh no, I can't choose only one!

Pick three artists who you would be honored to exhibit with – and why?
Carla Busuttil, Wonder Buhle, Grace Cross. or Jules de Ballincourt. The way they use paint and colour.

How did you get started? Did you always want to be an artist?
I've been drawing since I was 4 years old! I didn’t even question that it was my chosen passion and direction!

What are some of the key themes you explore in your work?
I'm interested in the way art makes me feel, so it’s a visceral response to life that really drives me rather than as specifically theme based. Having said that I do like to paint and draw people and things close to my heart and as extensions of my circumstances. I might also see an image, think about it for a while and take photographs of the image, ie maybe they are shadows and then I'll work within that context for a while. So I do have an image bank which fuels me at times.

What should people know about your art that they can’t tell from looking at it?
That I spend a lot of time agonizing about the work, before, during and after!! And I put my paintings on the wall or leave them hanging around my studio and sometimes it might take years for me to feel the work is resolved. Another time I'm happy straight away.

Tell us more about your creative process.
I spend a while thinking and doing some drawing and maybe tidying up or meditating and just processing a bit. I'm always in a longing mode to be in my studio, but I do procrastinate an awful amount of time. Then I quickly put down colours and shapes. Only then do I feel mobilized and then I can work quite quickly to get the ghist painted. Then I need to sit with it and mull and look.

Do you believe an artist should use their platform to influence society? Why?
I think marketing is key, no matter how painful it is …it keeps one visible and it's important to have the conversations. Having said that I prefer other people to do it for me.

Do you have a favourite or most meaningful work?
Favourites come and go, but I think I'm more attached to the experiences that occurred at a particular time, or the style that I was exploring at a certain time, as I know my work shifts in style and mood over time. It's good to let go of work and I guess some it's more difficult than others…. I'm liking a work at the moment that is called 'Louis', as its of a captured moment of my son at the start of lockdown and its full of compressed tension.

What is your greatest achievement as an artist to date?
I achieved a cum laude Masters in Fine Art and held a solo exhibition as part of the degree fulfilment of 75 works and sold most of them.

What are your aspirations for the future?
To really feel I am being productive and making art and constantly evolving into a better and better version of myself and my work.

Fish Hoek | 5 artworks for sale

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