printing in south africa

I came across this project completely by chance, in the beautiful coastal town of cintsa on the cusp of the trasskai. I was on a road trip with a great friend up the garden route and this was our last stop before we circled back to cape town. we were staying at a hostel called Bucaneers and over breakfast one morning i was admiring a piece of art work (shown in thumbnail). Next thing i know the owner of the hostel and artwork Sally price came in and we started chatting. As it was pouring it down outside (we were coming into winter in south africa) so she invited me into her studio for the day and I obviously jumped at it. entering her studio was like an exhale. I hadnt been in a studio for a month as I had been travelling and sleeping in hostel rooms so the only place i could really find solitude was in my sketchbook. sally taught me how to use a printing press. using scarps from the floor like string and bubble wrap and creating textures and shapes when he ink is pressed onto them. I decided to do a swries of figures as i had spent the past 5 months at home working on my project “growing pains” which centred around representation of the female form. The results were like magic, i loved the collage effect, i loved the different tetures all working together. I ended up spending the next day in there too, Sal and I painting together, talking about life and art. Sally also has a gallery called tea that we went to check out. her work is very surreal and my challenge for my africa sketchbook has been drawing only from imagination, no references, so i learnt alot from her.

I ended up selling two of my prints randomly in a mansion with an interupted view of capetown. long story short, we were in this gorgeous house with who grannies-to-be - literally one of their sons and one of their daughters were having a baby togwether and the woman was in labour. so it was their last evening as just parents, and our last evening in the western cape before flying to jo burg. and boy did we celebrate. the evening ended with a broken chair and each of the wonderful women buying a print each. i signed them “easton” - the name of the grandson that was born in the early hours of the monring. will never forget the hilarious randomness of this evening and i’m happy they have the prints to remember too. very special night.