Nina Torr discovers watercolour monotypes at DKW


14.11.2016

Pretoria-based artist Nina Torr (formerly working under the pseudonym Andy Wyeth) is currently collaborating with the David Krut Workshop on a series of experimental watercolour monotypes that relate to intuitive narratives brought together by her unique skills as both animator and illustrator.

dscf6746In the workshop, Torr begins an exploration into the possibilities and challenges of watercolour monotypes by using water-soluble wax pastels and Stabilo Woodies watercolour pencils, drawing directly onto a gummed Perspex plate. Torr also adds finer details with watercolours and a brush that amplifies the work’s painterly qualities. The image is lastly transferred onto a smooth Zerkall paper that is soaked beforehand and leaves an ultimately unique image that cannot be replicated.

The artist works intuitively with many images using familiar characters and combining them in various ways to construct a narrative.  She explains that the conscious construction of images is not necessarily considered prior to inception and that the characters direct the image to what it will become. There is an initial spark of insecurity and fear in the construction of the image as a whole which, for the artist, helps to authenticate the work as a true artistic expression. Torr’s first images of a sleeping cheetah stroked by gloved hands and an elephant collecting, carrying and protecting found and forgotten treasures are eccentric and uniquely sensitive as illustrative compositions.

Torr attained a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Parsons School of Design in 2010 and has recently returned to South Africa as an artist and arts educator. Her career began in education by teaching stop motion animation at Open Window Institute in Pretoria. She now focuses on teaching and developing skills in illustration. Torr has participated in various group shows and has had four solo exhibitions; two as Andy Wyeth, namely Milk and Honey on the Other Side at Wolves (Johannesburg, June 2012) and An Unnatural History at the In Toto Gallery (Johannesburg, November 2012) and two as Nina Torr, namely Again and Again at In Toto Gallery (2014) and Still at Sea at 99 Loop Gallery (Cape Town, 2016).

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Nina Torr. Think you can wait, 2016. Watercolour monotype. 40 x 50 cm.

View available works by the artist below:

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