The Alfred Mall at the V&A Waterfront was abuzz on Wednesday February 19, as Whale Watching, a collection of ceramic wall paints by Kevin Collins, opened at the AAFRICAA store.
The collection was unveiled as part of Art Week in Cape Town brought on by the Investec Art Fair, South Africa’s largest contemporary art event, happening this weekend at the Cape Town Convention Centre.
Kevin, who lives in Green Point, said 80 whale plates made it to the viewing on at the store, and he was surprised at the big interest the artwork received on the night. “I guess everyone loves whales – they are amazing creatures.”
Kevin was born in Durban “right on the Indian Ocean” and has been fascinated by whales ever since.
“I remember the many whaling stations around the coast of South Africa in the 1960’s – in fact right into the mid 1970’s – and the fact that we had depleted the Sperm, Minke and Fin whale populations around our coastlines until it was banned in 1979.
“I recall watching at a whaling station in Betty’s Bay the rather gruesome vision of the carcass being cut up.”
As a child, Kevin used to draw all sorts of things, learning from books, as he wasn’t able to do art as a subject at school.
While his parents were set on him getting “proper” education, it was his aunt that encouraged his art “with extreme love and patience”.
“(My parents were) clearly more high minded thinking I could make a good doctor. However, it was with great independence that I managed to get into studying Fine Arts with a very flimsy untrained portfolio of pencil drawings. Clearly what I lacked in talent I made up in enthusiasm.”
Kevin completed his training as a fine artist at UCT’s Michaelis School of Art in the 1970, majoring in painting.
He then went on to work in advertising, during which he never lifted a brush. “I realised the need to have a creative outlet in the last 15 years.”
Kevin has since participated in many group and solo exhibitions in and London as well as Johannesburg and Cape Town which he “lives in between”, and in his apartment overlooking the ocean, he says he is always on the lookout for whales.
He said his style of painting is inspired by the environment, especially in Cape Town when he walks the beaches or on the mountain.
For the Whale Watching collection, he said he was inspired that since South Africa’s ban on whaling, so many of the species have returned to the South African coast.
Kevin said just before the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, he acquired a kiln and after having received only a couple of lessons in basic pottery, he used the time to develop his own way of working in ceramics.
“I work by hand with the most important implement being my grandma’s large wooden pastry roller to flatten, cut, paint with glaze, and then to fire twice to get the final product… I use a high fired hardy stoneware clay and use food safe glazes so that the plates can be used to serve as tableware or as many folks like to use as wall art.“
He said the blue and white colours he incorporated is a reference to the familiar Willow pattern – an elaborate tableware pattern.
Whale Watching can be found at AAFRICAA store at the Alfred Mall, open daily from 9am to 8pm.
