THE WATERCOLOUR YEARS: Her first love was watercolours and she spent most of the eighties and nineties exhibiting and demonstrating the medium, designing stationery and doing book and botanical illustration. Lecturing at Bellville Art Centre, Constantia and the Western Cape countryside, hundreds of students benefitted from her watercolour courses.
MIDDLE PERIOD: Marie retired from teaching and entered a hectic period doing large colourful acrylics. From 2001 to 2004 she held several solo exhibitions, for instance in Budapest with sales to the South African and Canadian embassies and one painting ending up in the collection of President …….of Croatia. It was followed by an exhibition “ The Timeless Charm of Croatia” which opened in The Old Cape Town House, then moved to Sandton Art Gallery and The Croatian Embassy in Pretoria. The exhibition was a sell-out with the artist retaining 4 paintings for her own collection. It also led to commissions from the Croatian first secretary for his new Embassy post in Toronto. In 2005 The Pretoria Art Association commissioned paintings from 20 artist throughout Africa for a world touring exhibition “The Challenge of the Tie” where the role of Croatia as home of the tie was celebrated .Marie’s painting “Sister Power” now hangs in the permanent collection of Galleria Cravatica in Zagreb.
THE REAL WEST COAST: A profound change took place when Marie settled at the seaside on the lovely West Coast. So –called “West Coast Art” lacks in sincerity and makes use of stagnant little make-believe scenes of boats and cottages. It is the artist’s most passionate ambition to put this right. She visits and paints throughout the region and posts both paintings and history of the West Coast on her very popular and widely read blog, ARTIST MARIE THERON CHRONICLES THE WEST COAST OF SOUTH AFRICA. All the images used in this profile are from her West Coast blog.
This article gave me a lot of joy. The magazine is unfortunately difficult to get on the normal circuit of book shops and news agencies. A few of my friends could get hold of a copy at art galleries or larger city stores. It can be read online in pdf format for a short period only.
I am often asked about that painting in Zagreb called "Sister Power." As you can read above, it resides in the Acedemia Cravatica. Surely, in Croatia, they are extremely proud of having given birth to the tie. Imagine paying some South African and other artists to give their interpretation of a tie! Go to the gallery's fan page on Facebook and see the fun festivals and mile-long ties, etc!In my painting I used the tie as a token of power and painted ties around the necks of young African girls, symbolizing the future of women in Africa.
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