Portfolio

Commissioned Interior Architectural Visual Art

Project Title

Rolfontein Chalets Interior Visual Art 

Brief Overview or Introduction

Summary: The newly built Rolfontein chalets needed artwork, and Freehand Studio asked Riaan for a proposal. Altogether it was 32 artworks in 7 chalets.

Project goals: Create 32 unique artworks that suits the location including: 

• A concept presentation
• Own material
• Own studio and resources
• Delivery 

Client: Freehand Studio 

Problem: One of the problems was the fact that the work couldn’t be too heavy since it had to be transported over a long distance, this means that it had to be a light material that is more durable than canvas and also unframed.

Role

Responsibilities: Riaan’s role as Visual Artist was to conceptualise artwork that draws inspiration from the surrounding landscape.

Process & Development:

Research: The initial phase involved examining the photos of the landscape which the Client provided as well as the architectural plans to get an understanding of the feel of the place, the genius loci, as well as the scale of the artwork. 

Conceptualisation: The concepts drew inspiration from the natural textures and colours of the Rolfontein landscape, as well as from South African rock art.

Iterations: The first iterations featured numerous hand sketches that thematically moved between textured abstraction, markmaking and representational symbols, figures, and geometric shapes.

Final Solution/Design: The final artworks drew direct inspiration from consciousness as explored by San Shamans, with each state, wether the waking state, day-dreaming, dreaming, or trance state, each denoting a from language. Abstraction was used to denote day dream and dream states, representational figures was used to denote the waking state, and geometric shapes similar to entoptic phenemena was used to signify trance states. For the material, masonite pressed wood boxed canvasses was used since it is durable and can be easily transported with little to no wear and tear and is also relatively light.

Tools & Technologies Used: An array of tools from physical to digital, including paper notebooks, pencils, acrylic paint, masonite pressed wood boxed canvas, Photoshop, and more.

Results & Impact: The Client was very excited to receive the work.

Testimonials or Client Feedback: The Client later confirmed that his Client was very pleased.

Challenges & Learnings: Balancing time spent on the project within the budget was challenging considering that all the materials had to come from the budget. Another challenge was that the bigger works tiled due to the moistness of the paint. This could be corrected by strenghtening the canvas boxes at the back with triangular crossbeams.