PRESS RELEASE
SASHA HARTSLIEF: Patterns of Light
Dec 3 – Dec 31, 2020
Everard Read CIRCA is proud to present Patterns of Light, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Sasha Hartslief at Everard Read Cape Town.
What interests me most in my painting practice is the emotive quality of light. People, scenes and objects cannot be viewed devoid of the element of light, but a scene viewed in bright sunlight will convey a completely different feeling to the viewer to that same scene viewed by candlelight or lamplight. In a way, light is a subtle language that we all perceive intuitively, and our entire sense of the world is dictated by the quality of light, and this is what has always fascinated me in the scenes which I construct and record. Like music, it is pre-verbal, and totally void of any intellectual constructs. It is something that I feel that I am just beginning to discover and appreciate, and I think I will always feel that way.
- Sasha Hartslief
Sasha Hartslief’s subjects are often viewed from a philosophical yet deeply personal perspective, resulting in paintings that are emotionally charged, pensive in mood and considered in composition. Her subtle investigations into the human condition strike a chord with us.
Hartslief uses brushstrokes to evoke the transience of light, colour and movement. And like her Renaissance and Impressionist forebears, she employs everyday visual devices to explore the way in which atmospheric light and tonal modulations inform a surface, and to evoke atmospheres fraught with symbolic subtexts. But the transience of the captured moment is counterbalanced by the disciplined rigour of Hartslief's technique and painterly process. She admits to being "obsessively skills-driven and consumed" by her work. Each image becomes a formal study in light, contour and line.
*Face masks are required and must be worn when visiting the gallery
Images by Michael Hall
