Colours of the Sun – Jocelyn Jacobson Cole
This incredible talent was given her first set of oil paints at the age of eleven and has been dabbling in art ever since.
Jocelyn Jacobson Cole was brought up in Zimbabwe. She lived for many years in both Botswana and South Africa. She has also traveled extensively throughout most of the Southern African countries including Namibia, Mozambique and Swaziland. It is through these travels that she found her inspiration to be that of Africa. Her enduring love for her homeland is apparent in her work; seen in her bright colours and humorous paintings.
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She mostly goes by her maiden name as a tribute to her parents, as it is their genes she inherited and therefore from them she received her creative ability and drive to follow her dreams.
“My work is figurative. I place African wild life, and their human cohabiters, into whimsical, humorous, almost surreal, narratives. Many people have commented that the distant expressions on the faces in my paintings have a spiritual quality to them. Although this is not intentional on my part, I do like the idea that my paintings convey a calming quality – especially in a world that is overloaded with tension, anxiety, pain and negative media. I wish to counteract this negativity by lifting the viewers’ spirits through their enjoyment of the colour, humour and sense of narrative that my work contains. Occasionally, social issues find their way into my work but these issues are generalized and their ambiguity has often generated some interesting thoughts and discussion.”
Jocelyn trained in textiles, which is clear to see from her use of colour and love of pattern. Jocelyn nowadays prefers to express herself through acrylic painting – on board or canvas – which allows her to interpret, more fully, her African experiences. There is much demand work for its atmospheric, serene, calm, witty and amusing take on the continent that she so clearly loves.
Recent exhibitions have included Eastern Arts Open 2008 and 2010, Norfolk Open Studios 2008/09/10, Obsidian Arts “Out of Africa” in Buckinghamshire 2009/10, The Coach House in Guernsey 2009, The Untitled Art Fair in London 2009 and Cape Town 2010.
“Colours of the Sun” is on opening on the 9 September 2010 at
Raw Vision Gallery, 89 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock. tel +27 76 581 9468.
