The group of 15 artists that participated in this workshop were so immersed and dedicated to this intense workshop that I thought I had to share their progress leading up to the final product.
ANNA DAVEL
Bio
Anna Davel has established herself as a singer-songwriter, but her first love has always been art. She attended 2 years of BA Art and Graphic design at NWU in the early 90’s, but since the course was terminated, she altered her degree to BA psychology & art history and started touring and focusing on her music career during this time.
During the first 2020 Lock down, Anna was asked to illustrate an online Music and Poetry project (Woorde I, II and III), and due to her music career coming to a halt and all concerts, festivals and tours being cancelled, she immediately agreed and accepted the challenge. Even though she has been creating art throughout her life, for the first time she had the chance to throw herself into creating art full time and to sell her work commercially.
Artist statement
There is nothing new on earth. Everything has been said, painted, thought about and done.
For me, being creative is not necessarily to focus on the object or content I draw alone, but also about creating an atmosphere around the object. I enjoy taking something as simple and every day as a tree, umbrella, bird, a tent, a fish or a building, and then to add something contradicting, exploratory, magical, mysterious or even nostalgic to it by using colours, marks, layers, a unique combination in an unusual setting.
I have a childlike yearning to travel and experience new things, other worlds and cultures, and even though these opportunities are few and far between, I feel I can still do so through reading books, poetry and art. By creating art I can transport myself momentarily and have a window on a little universe that did not exist before. My aim is to transport the viewer to an imaginative moment in time.
I choose to elevate creatures and objects from an often-uncomfortable reality into a universe of fantasy, gentleness and winged escape, mostly to give myself a sense of emotional relief; a feeling of being set free even though my physical body feels tied down in a never ending rat race of a free-lance entrepreneur, never knowing where the next contract or project will lead me.
A pastel drawing by Anna Davel done before the workshop.
These artworks were inspired by the text:
” Belofte van vere”.
Dit is ń teaterteks vir n nuwe musiekteater produksie wat open 6 Oktober in Potchefstroom by die Aardklop Nasionale kunstefees. / It is a theatre text for a new music production that opens on the 6 October 2025 at the Aardklop Nasionale kunstefees in Potchefstroom.
Geskryf deur / written by: Breyten Breytenbach, Daphnèe Breytenbach.
Saamgestel en geskep deur / compiled and created by: Anna Davel
Paula Dubois.
Biography
Cape Town artist Paula Dubois has been exploring the intersection of faith and beauty since a young age. After studying at Pro Arte and the University of Pretoria, she earned a BA in Information Design and spent four years with Youth with a Mission, working cross-culturally around the world. Paula later built a career in print media as a designer, art director, and illustrator for leading South African publications. In recent years, she’s shifted her focus to fine art, exhibiting widely and holding her first solo show in 2020. She co-founded Salon 104 in 2022, a collaborative space for artists. Paula lives in Oranjezicht, where the mountain and sea continue to inspire her work.
Artist statement_Diane Victor Workshop
Inspired by the creation story of Genesis, my work explores themes of chaos, transformation, and renewal. I’ve experienced deep unknowing – but also the hovering presence of something greater, a divine Presence that brings beauty from disorder. Motherhood, too, became an act of creation: raising my son as a single parent was both a calling and a crucible. Now, as he begins his own journey as an adult, I find myself again on the edge of something new – ‘letting go’ has become part of both parenting and the creative process.
My landscapes are built from layered textures and mark-making, using charcoal in all its forms – dust, line, smear – as a language of emotion. These abstract works are acts of faith, shaped by intuition and repetition. Even in darkness, the Spirit still hovers. And from that place, beauty is born.
Inspired by the creation story of Genesis, my work explores themes of chaos, transformation, and renewal. I’ve experienced deep unknowing – but also the hovering presence of something greater, a divine Presence that brings beauty from disorder. Motherhood, too, became an act of creation: raising my son as a single parent was both a calling and a crucible. Now, as he begins his own journey as an adult, I find myself again on the edge of something new – ‘letting go’ has become part of both parenting and the creative process.
My landscapes are built from layered textures and mark-making, using charcoal in all its forms – dust, line, smear – as a language of emotion. These abstract works are acts of faith, shaped by intuition and repetition. Even in darkness, the Spirit still hovers. And from that place, beauty is born.
Inspired by the creation story of Genesis, my work explores themes of chaos, transformation, and renewal. I’ve experienced deep unknowing – but also the hovering presence of something greater, a divine Presence that brings beauty from disorder. Motherhood, too, became an act of creation: raising my son as a single parent was both a calling and a crucible. Now, as he begins his own journey as an adult, I find myself again on the edge of something new – ‘letting go’ has become part of both parenting and the creative process.
My landscapes are built from layered textures and mark-making, using charcoal in all its forms – dust, line, smear – as a language of emotion. These abstract works are acts of faith, shaped by intuition and repetition. Even in darkness, the Spirit still hovers. And from that place, beauty is born.
Inspired by the creation story of Genesis, my work explores themes of chaos, transformation, and renewal. I’ve experienced deep unknowing – but also the hovering presence of something greater, a divine Presence that brings beauty from disorder. Motherhood, too, became an act of creation: raising my son as a single parent was both a calling and a crucible. Now, as he begins his own journey as an adult, I find myself again on the edge of something new – ‘letting go’ has become part of both parenting and the creative process.
My landscapes are built from layered textures and mark-making, using charcoal in all its forms – dust, line, smear – as a language of emotion. These abstract works are acts of faith, shaped by intuition and repetition. Even in darkness, the Spirit still hovers. And from that place, beauty is born.
Kelp Forest
Influenced by the Sea Change Project’s work to protect kelp forests, Paula Dubois explores the unseen connections between above and below, land and sea, God and human. Her practice reflects a journey of “rewilding” – moving beyond the boundaries of design to embrace intuitive, process-led creation. Working primarily in ink, she uses kelp both as subject and tool, allowing natural materials like kelp slime to guide the flow of ink on canvas. Through layering and letting go, her work invites the invisible to become visible.