(b. 1953 KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa)

In her early years, Bronwen Findlay spent most of her time in Kranskop (in the Tugela Valley), Brighton Beach (Durban) and Pietermaritzburg. She now lives and works in Johannesburg. She matriculated at Epworth High School in Pietermaritzburg and then studied Fine Art at what was then the Durban Technikon (Durban Institute of Technology) and the University of Natal (University of KwaZulu-Natal). She received her Master of Arts in Fine Arts and her Higher Diploma in Education from the University of Natal. Bronwen considers herself both an artist and educationalist. She has taught in schools and universities and has been involved with informal community-based programmes. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and may be seen in public institutions and private homes. She is essentially a painter, but her painterly approach to her subject matter can also be seen in her printmaking and mosaic art.

My work is informed by spaces I have lived in, places I have been to, things I collect, people I collaborate with. I manipulate paint and colour in response to my subject matter. I like to think that “every picture tells a story” but that each painting exists as its own world. I try to find beauty in things which might seem insignificant or not of great importance, the ordinary or every day.  I have painted domestic objects which may be loaded with cultural connotations – a willow-patterned piece of crockery from my grandmother, enamel tin plates and mugs bought from trading stores.

Textiles and cloth have also played an important role in my work – I was influenced by the embroidery and beadwork created by women from the Limpopo province and for a time beaded my paintings with dots of paint. Colour and decoration have always been an important aspect of my painting. This decorative manipulation of paint may also be seen in more recent paintings of South African flora and fauna – while these works are hardly botanical, I hope that they capture a different reality.

JULIA CHARLTON ON BRONWEN FINDLAY

Intense colour, vigorous paint, delight in the decorative and the elevation of the ordinary: these qualities characterize Bronwen Findlay's distinctive vision, which is strongly self-reflexive and personal. She challenges traditionally-held assumptions about hierarchies and value by selecting autobiographical subjects and domestic settings that are often dismissively associated with 'the female realm'. Findlay presents a persuasive argument for the relevance and significance of the everyday, by exploring issues of transience and change through the mechanisms of irony, sentimentality and embellishment, in a powerful affirmation of life.