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09 June 2000ARTWORCESTER SAUCE, BLOOD AND COFFEEBy Michael Coulson Erica Berry, Ann Kerr, Ulrich Schwanecke (Karen McKerron); James Durno (Dunkeld Art Gallery); Dinkies Sithole (Jo'burg Art Foundation); Bottled At Source (Civic Theatre)
Three skilled practitioners make up Karen McKerron's contribution to the Standard Bank Watercolour Festival. Berry and Kerr mainly produce still lifes, but their styles differ fundamentally. Kerr's work is delicate and highly detailed; Berry, on the other hand, is concerned with broad shape and form, and from any distance some of the work has an abstract feel.
Ulrich Schwanecke . . . river Li (mainland China)Schwanecke has strayed far afield from his beloved Namibia. Global Travels since 1985 have taken him from Portugal to China, via Australia, Greece, Egypt and the US. Apart from anything else, this shows that his palette is not limited to dusky earth colours. He revels in the deep blue sea of the Mediterranean. However, just so as we shan't forget his African roots, there are also landscapes of Botswana.
Durno is as much a sculptor as a painter, carving deep impressions into wood panels before embellishing the surface. The work is bright, cheerful and inventive, but goes beyond superficial appeal only in portraits of his wife and baby son.
Offbeat media are the highlights of the week's other offerings. Sithole's leaving room for the eye to discover consists mostly of paintings in Worcester sauce, with elements of collage and torn paper. They are untitled, deliberately leaving us to discern our own images. I picked out swirling clouds, thickly matted bushes, a rearing horse and a woman's breasts, but your eye could no doubt discover other things. There are also some nicely gnarled wooden sculptures.
At the Civic, also part of the Watercolour Festival, Merryn Singer paints in blood and Flip Hattingh in coffee. The media are more remarkable than most of the work, but I was impressed by some small still lifes by Thomasin Dewhurst, in every respect a strong contrast to her recent show at the Art Foundation.
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