(b. 1975 Durban, South Africa)

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Lee-Ann Heath’s love for impasto oil paint, nature, and connection. Using her surroundings as a point of departure, Heath draws on inspiration both natural and relational. Lee-Ann Heath’s desire is to recreate, analyse and deconstruct sensation.

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When working with such thick paint, the challenge of finding the right balance between confident brush and palette knife strokes and moments of vulnerability becomes integral to Heath’s process, with the continuous rearrangements of colours and forms lifting and enhancing each other, layer upon layer. The work reflects an obsessive urge to find the right combination of colour, line and shape. As Heath explains: “I find the elements of surprise and unexpected accidental moments exciting, and when the accidental meets the intentional it often leads to the identity of the work coming unto its own.”

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The canvas has the noticeable touch of her hand, where the thickly layered paint has been moved around in a sensuous manner by her palms or fingers. This technique gives the images a three dimensional, nearly culinary quality, the paint with an appearance like icing on a cake… almost good enough to eat. This invitation to an intense sensory interaction is carried through all the pieces, making the artwork massively tactile and dynamic.

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Education

1987     Matric, Awarded Artist of the Year Prize.

1994     Fine Arts National Diploma, Natal Technicon - Top Achievement Award: Painting.

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