Anita Malan studios
I am an artist, doing ceramics, etching and bespoke mosaic work. My studio is at home in Somerset West where I live. Somerset West is situated under the Helderberg mountains overlooking the beautiful False Bay.
I have been doing ceramics for more than 35 years. I started with doing a lot of wheel work, making functional ware. Currently, I am focusing more on ceramic sculpture.
Four years ago I started with etching classes and that opened a whole new, exciting world to me. Once a week I drive to Kommetjie for my etching class. I have learned to do soft ground, hard ground, drypoint, aquatint, embossing and spit biting techniques. I love that there are still so many processes to master and I feel excited to learn more.
My goal is to imitate the look of old weathered wood and metal by drawing inspiration from the shipwrecks theme I used in my ceramic sculpture series.
ceramic hand-building
Etching & print making
Mosaic Decór & installations
Working with coloured clay
Some time back, I also took a course in Conceptual art: art where the idea or concept behind the work is more important than the finished art object. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. I used this art form in my etching, doing a series of work depicting renovations at my house that did not ultimately go according to plan.
Living in Somerset West, surrounded by magnificent mountains, nature and the sea, there is no lack of inspiration daily. I’m inspired by different textures, such as old wood, cloth, rusted metal and plant textures.
I like to experiment with the multiple possibilities of clay, always striving to imitate textures like those found in nature by studying the impact nature has on certain materials.
For example, with some of the boats I made, I worked towards getting the look of old, weathered wood to create the impression that it has been exposed to the elements for a long time. When clay dries, it gets to a certain stage that, if you carve into it, it flakes off and creates the impression of old wood. Since I love detail, I can sit and carve like that for hours.