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Opoutere Beach artist Guity Evelyn recently
returned from a contemplative trip ‘home’ to
the Provence region of France. Rather than
packing paints and brushes, Guity used a
Nikon camera with a 64GB memory card to
capture her realizations.
In her whirlwind two-week, 3000 photo visit to
Nice and surrounds, she re-established a deep
artistic bond with some of her favourite hidden
nooks on the Cote d’Azur (French Riviera).
Why did Guity choose photography to deepen
her experience? “I wanted to capture
everything, every nuance”, she explains, “the
long silent moments spent with seemingly
insignificant objects or scenes.”
An exercise in observation
Guity says this exercise in observation through
a lens was not intended to produce tourist
landscape photos, but rather to enhance
visually the meditative practices she uses
through yoga and long distance swimming.
“With all of them, including photography, you
must control and be conscious of your
breathing, so in the end although they differ,
they all do play off one another.”
For Guity, all this clears the mind for painting,
the creative process, “the ultimate objective”.
Since her return from France, revitalized by
the Coromandel summer, Guity is creating a
new body of abstract paintings. Not all
artists are aware of their own creativity, but
here, Guity has parted the curtains to let us
glimpse her creative path.
“These images were taken while sitting in lotus position at the
Mamac Museum in Nice, 37 seconds before closing time –
with guards watching me, mesmerized and wondering: what
on earth is she possibly seeing in a table of blue pigments
dedicated to Yves Klein?
“Well in the reflection of the side table, low to the ground, I saw
the microcosm of my favourite
cosmology...namely the sand dunes,
the sea, the light, the hills and the
green patch, reminiscent of the bush,
of all things green, of nurturance; this
for me is abstraction at its most
fecund, most generous and most
transcendental...”
INSPIRATION THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHIC EYES...
Trip home to Provence
recharges artist’s vision
48
COROMANDEL LIFE 2015 LATE SUMMER/EASTER
Guity believes nothing is
without visual value. “I
find everything and
everyone has a presence,
and a rightful place in the
order of things. It’s just a
matter of how you relate
to what is in front of you,
what you choose to see.”
Right: Was Guity’s painting
“Honour Your Life” inspired
by the layers of fencing?
Guity notes the evolution of
soft tones, subtle, yet
textured and intricate in
their execution.
“I have always loved layering,
it reflects more nature’s
complexity and depth,
there’s nothing in life that is
really shallow.”
Left, “Veranda Abstraction”
Guity Evelyn fresh from her swim in the estuary.
Swimming and yoga are two of her focusing tools
.
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Photos capture the experience...