We were privileged to visit Jeannie Kinsler at her home in Durban and are so delighted to share this short film - a peek into her home life and creative inspirations.
Jeannie draws from and is informed by the space she lives in and things that surround her - a created, curated environment. Her work as a result can be seen as a tribute to home, to the people that she shares the space with, to the objects and plants. She is concerned with the idea of life as being an essentially transient, ephemeral thing – the lift of a breeze and something is there and gone. The face or body poised to move. Her paintings are an attempt to make something permanent of those fleeting moments.
Artist Statement:
As an artist I draw from and am informed by the spaces I live in and things that surround me, both those that exist here and those that I have very specifically chosen and been drawn to - a created, curated environment - my work as a result can be seen as a tribute to home (wherever that may be), to the people that I share the space with, to the objects and plants.
In the words of friend and fellow artist Immie Mostert “a created sanctuary for the artist to make her unknown known” - as a result the paintings are deeply personal, a reflection of myself “an attempt to record the passing of time - something captured as the play of light and shadow shifts - dissolving or solidifying form”.
There are layers - of material and meaning - keenly observed with an exacting eye.
Even though a figurative painter at heart I am always searching for a way to tip the work towards abstraction - one of the reasons for the often used aerial perspective and I give as much attention to the negative shapes between as to the object or subject itself. I also try not to give so much information and detail as to make the painting closed and finished - I like that there are layers and moments of discovery in the looking, over a period of time.
'Wreath and Mustard Bowl'
Oil on Canvas, 90 x 120cm
The same occurs in life - looking closely at the world, looking again, seeing things, often the same things but in a new light or in relationship to the thing next to it, being curious. Everything I work with or from is just here - the ordinary and everyday, the treasured - the people that live or have just passed through, the plants and the walls and the light that are so much a part of this corner of the world.
'Cloths and Long Shadows II'
Oil on Canvas, 110 x 90cm
Jeannie Kinsler was born in England but moved to this continent when she was 8 years old, growing up in Zimbabwe and then moving to South Africa in 1979. She studied Graphic Design at the then Natal Technikon and has been painting for the past 12 years. Her early study of painting in oils was under the guidance of
Pascale Chandler. Her work is figurative – and often fragmented, the paint is applied in thin layers and the subject matter is life and the world around her - all influenced by light and how it shifts, falls and filters.
