GENERAL — Shena MacDonald is an artist who hails from Durban and offers inspirational painting workshops entitled ‘Flower Encounter’ across South Africa, Australia and India.
Hofmeyr farmer’s wife Sanet Coetzer got wind of the workshop over the miles and wrote an email to Shena, imploring her to come to Hofmeyr, which is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, to run a workshop there.
Shena, who is not afraid of more than a little adventure, obliged, and before long eight enthusiastic women from the central Karoo had signed up for the course!
News spreads quickly in the Karoo, and Shena was asked to do another workshop in the Graaff-Reinet/Murraysburg area a week later. Hospitality in Hofmeyr is topnotch and the village, although run down in places, is filled with unsurpassed beauty.
Using images of their selected flowers, Macdonald provided each participant with an oversized canvas and taught them the rudimentary basics of painting in oil.
The main objective of the course was to learn to observe and to look deeper into the beautiful flowers that were painted.
Roses, Irises, Queen of the Nights, Dahlias, Poppies and Peonies were seen in a different light as Shena taught the ladies to mix and apply colours correctly. While some had painted before, there were also some who had never painted in oil, and the final outcome proved that much was learned!
To be afforded the luxury of painting for 7 hours a day for three consecutive days was a real treat for these women who lead busy lives.
As Thomas Merton said, ‘Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.’
This workshop, which resulted in the most exquisite paintings, certainly achieved this on the highest level.
The workshop resulted in the most exquisite paintings.
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