Resident and artist Clarinda Venter tells her story of art and her journey and experiences with painting people and working with them.
It all started in the ’30s, when a very young Venter started to express herself by painting. “I didn’t have any canvases back then so I painted on the windows of our house and on the door posts. Later on, I started to paint on rocks and I never knew that one day I would have to paint on a 100 rocks for an overseas order.”
She explained that nature and landscapes captivated her and soon, she started to paint these scenes from memory and as she saw them.
“I was fortunate enough to grow up in Weltevreden Park when it was still called Weltevreden Farm. Here was nothing back then, we were surrounded by the veld and it helped me to hone my skills as an artist.”
Venter added that she wrote matric in 1953 and went to the Witwatersrand Technicon to start with her degree in art. “It was called a NATC (National Art Teacher Certificate) and I received my degree four years later.”
She explained that the degree helped her to discover the finer details of painting that she used throughout her career.
“I started to work as an art teacher at Die Burger Hoërskool and I soon realised that teaching was a strenuous job but I enjoyed it.”
She continued as a freelance painter and did advertisements, décor for plays and she also painted illustrations for various books.
“The funniest advert I had to paint happened when a man, who opened a lingerie shop in Hillbrow, and I had to do a painting of a bunch of panties and underwear and I was so scared that my children might see it and discover me doing a painting of lingerie.”
In 1993, Venter retired after being a teacher for almost 35 years. “I retired from being an art teacher but I continued to paint and I gave art classes to older, retired people and I really loved doing it.”
Unfortunately she developed eye problems a couple of years ago and now she only paints landscapes and other nature scenes. “There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing a finished painting and knowing that you put hours of work into it. My advice to young people is to follow your passion and do what you want to do. Work hard at your passion every day and never give up.”
