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MOSSEL BAY NEWS - At first glance, it seems that Mossel Bay artist Elma Cronjé's paintings are pretty pictures consisting of square-ish shapes and patterns in nicely matching colours, which would look good on a sitting room wall.
Cronjé has a keen sense of pattern and colour - evident in all her works. But, there is actually intense emotion and meaning in her creations.
For example, she created a sequence of works pertaining to the Knysna fires, which destroyed properties and tracts of vegetation in June 2017.
The works describe the fires, their destruction of the forest and then the gradual repair of the forest after the fires.
Cronjé was deeply upset about the devastation caused by the fires.
Knysna Inferno (1)
Forest saved by rain (2)
Faeries working to restore the forest (3)
Knysna resurrected (4), the last painting in Cronjé's Knysna fires series.
She paints about issues such as gender violence and human suffering, which move her to the core.
Photo gallery: Layers of meaning and emotion in art
One of her paintings, Tears, is about the different types of "tears" one cries: they can be tears resulting from anger, self-pity, hurt or regret, for example. Cronjé did research on tears and discovered that the chemical composition of fake tears - crocodile tears - is different from that of true, heartfelt tears.
Look carefully
In Tears, which is a large mixed media work on canvas, there are many "hidden" faces among the patterns. One has to look carefully for the faces Cronjé has depicted.
She paints in layers, so what looks like a simple work can consist of up to 30 layers of paint. She uses oils, acrylics, oil pastels and other media, depending on the effect she wishes to create.
Cronjé is extremely humble and self deprecating and shies away from publicity. She takes her work extremely seriously. "I always want to put across a message with my art," she says.
Her creativity is evident in everything about her: her studio, her shop and personally, in her appearance: her spectacle frames, outfit and jewellery.
Everything about her speaks of artistic expression.
Cronjé's husband, Tian, is her biggest fan and goes into great detail, explaining the rationale behind her paintings. He also paints and sculpts, as well as the couple's daughter and the family own the art shop in Mossel Bay, where their work is sold. The couple's son-in-law is also highly involved in the business.
Previously Cronjé was a pre-primary school teacher. "I never believed in having a TV at pre-schools," she said. The children did art and played in the sand pit and were encouraged to do tactile things, so important for their fine motor skills development and creativity.
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