Anneke Potgieter

I am an atmospheric landscape artist. Of particular interest to me is how mood and perception can shift, and the role that language plays in making sense of these changes in our outer and inner worlds. Filled with mist, reflected light and shadow, the landscapes I create lie close to recognition but remain open to interpretation – like the psyche, they are at once familiar and strange, never fixed. Given my background in linguistics, I often use asemic writing in my work to underscore this push and pull between certainty and flux in our attempts at sensemaking. I build my landscapes in layers, using pastels, charcoal, pencils, watercolours, inks, acrylics, oils and cold wax. The varying tones and textures of these media allow me to add and remove information, leaving traces of thought and feeling just below the surface. Drawing on the literary convention, I organise my work into series, books and chapters. Often, my artwork titles read as snippets from a longer text, an ongoing conversation or a song. This, in combination with the open nature of the work itself, leaves a trail of thought that can be picked up and engaged with at will. Ultimately, I want to balance the aesthetic with the intellectual, statement with question, reality with escapism. Studio visits in Kommetjie welcome by appointment.