Fine Artist Marie-Adèle de Villiers is based in Cape Town, South Africa and focuses on drawing and painting.

She produces ink line drawings of mountains, with an interest in time and process, and with a deep love for the ultimate Creator God, by whom and for whom she exists and strives to create.

She says, “To me, mountains are a play between something very consistent and firm, and something very active and ever-progressing, a play between something repulsive and something so incredibly attractive, they are real and a fantasy, outside of us, and all in the mind – all at once. Whether the ‘they’ is the representations which make them what they appear to us, or the real thing that are a magnificent gift from God – they are the most amazing source for art making.”

More info: stateoftheart-gallery.com

To fine artist Marie-Adèle de Villiers, mountains are a play between something very consistent and firm, and something active and ever-progressing, something repulsive and something incredibly attractive.

She says about mountains:
“They are like the grandfathers of nature – and I believe that they are an absolute gift from the ultimate Creator. They communicate and aid our understanding of His sublimity so effectively.

I am attracted to mountains mainly because I read them as sublime. Throughout history people have tried to make sense of mountains, and in this process have attributed to them readings such as Edmund Burke’s concept of the sublime, and Thomas Burnet’s idea of mountains as repulsive scars and catastrophes of nature.

Over time people have had similar fascinations and musings about mountains, and so we become part of a wealth of information that leads and inspires the reading, experience and communication of mountains as terrifyingly beautiful, wise, magnificent and overwhelming. “

Working from a reference image of a local mountain:

She likes to embrace her process, the reality of working and the truth involved there, particularly time. So she uses controlled ink splashes and a list of dates and times formed by jotting down when she starts and stops working.

In her local park in Cape Town, observing the mountains that inspire her.

Marie-Adèle sells her ink drawings online and exhibits frequently in Cape Town.

She says about her process:

“Generally it involves experiencing and capturing a specific mountain or searching through my library of mountain images, photo editing, conceptualizing (thinking, reading, writing), deciding on paper and size, paper trimming, positioning the paper, image, ink, ink water & brushes, praying and then going through my drawing process: Dunking the brush, wiping, splashing, dabbing, layering lines & marks and jotting down when I start and stop working – forming aesthetic elements I like to include in the drawing to remind one that it went through a process and is a product of a specific context and time. It’s something very small, very tame, like a drop from a bucket, pointing to great things like mountains and time that give a sense of perspective, and which in turn allow one to humbly marvel at one who must be even greater. “

A short film she describes her process and we see her home studio space and visit a local park to look at the mountains.

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