SA colour in Kilcullen art
It’s fair to say that where we are brought up will always colour the rest of our lives, and that’s certainly true for artist Marinus Meyer.
Now living in Kilcullen, his native home is South Africa, and the colours of his original country are striking in the art he produces.
Kildare people will get a chance to see this between June 9-13 at Naas Library, where Marinus is holding his first solo exhibition.
Marinus came to Ireland seven years ago, ‘dragged’ by his then girlfriend and then, as he says himself, he ‘got stuck’ here.
“But in a very good way,” he adds with a grin. “In fact, while I had been painting at home since 1993, it was only when I came to Ireland that I became really active as an artist.”
Maybe it was because he missed the colour and bright sunshine of his homeland? Perhaps, because certainly the bright colours in his work are very much different than the more subdued way that artists from this part of the world use them.
“I’ve been told they might be too bright for here,” he muses. “And maybe I’ll eventually tone them down, but people are buying what I’m producing at the moment.”
Which is just as well, because last summer Marinus took the plunge to working as an artist full-time, and is planning to remain so if at all possible.
He makes it clear from the beginning that he never had any training in art, and that what he produces comes very much from within.
“But I would like to study some aspects, and I’m contemplating going to train at some stage in sculpture, especially using resin, where I’ve been developing some ideas recently.”
Apart from sales among people he knows, or who see his work elsewhere, Marinus is using the internet to market his work, with some success.
“The internet is really a godsend to artists, because we can show our work to a global audience,” he says. “I don’t have a website as such, but I’ve shown my work on my FaceBook page and people have bought and commissioned pieces from there.”
Marinus says he finds the wide artistic culture in Ireland, in music, writing and painting, ‘very inspiring’. “It’s a very energetic place for an artist. Years ago I would not have imagined living in Europe some day and making a living from art. This place gave that to me, and I’m so thankful for it.”
Marinus has settled in Kilcullen, for the moment anyhow, with his wive Eva. They live in a 200-year-old stone cottage in the town, which he says also provides its own inspiration.
Brian Byrne.
(This article was recently published in the Kildare Nationalist.)
