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Contact Info
+27 82 218 1906
Pretoria South Africa
lena@lenahugo.com
“Red Rubber Black Gold”, pastel and gold leaf, “Red Rubber Black Gold”, pastel and gold leaf, was selected for the Portrait Awards top 40, which opened on Friday evening. Congratulations to all the winners and to @rust_en_vredegallery for hosting another successful Portrait award for us! Red rubber refers to the rubber slave trade in the Free State of the Congo during 1890 to 1910. Black gold is an expression used for petroleum or oil. The expression was first used in 1910. My model was Zanna Katoka whom I met last year at an artist residency in Muizenberg South Africa. Originally born in the DRC, her parents fled the country when she was a young girl. Educated for a while in the USA, she preferred to come to South Africa to be with her parents even though the political climate was far from welcoming yet. She grew up in Benoni. She is currently living in Muizenberg where she met her partner and runs a surf camp and artist’s residency with him. She has a degree in marketing and is working on her own business endeavours as well. She has many family members still living in the DRC. We were discussing the conflicts in her country of birth and she said that ever since she could remember, her country has always been at war. We were wondering: Why? Zanna is of the opinion that it is because of her country’s valuable resources. Rubber (in the past) and oil are only two of the DRC’s many available valuable resources. A country and people can be cursed by that which are rightfully theirs. I depict Zanna here also as a valuable and queenly person against a rich golden back ground. This is the second portrait I made of Zanna. The first currently resides at @admirals.residence and is part of the residency’s growing art collection. The Portrait Award exhibition will be on view at Rust-en-Vrede gallery, 10 Wellington Road, Durbanville until the 29th of October. #portraitaward #portraits #pastelportraits #goldleaf
This one is so long I can’t even fit a proper pi This one is so long I can’t even fit a proper picture of it on Instagram. “Tiles” doesn’t even work for it. Well, it wasn’t intended to be an Instagram post, now was it? 😅It was intended to be an artwork! 😂😂 #pastelart #panorama #sugarcane #migrantworkers #chalkpastel
Enjoyed drawing these two handsome pigeons. Soon t Enjoyed drawing these two handsome pigeons. Soon to be exhibited @trentgallery Pastel on sandpaper. #pastelart #chalkpastel #pigeons #hardpastel #softpastel #pastelonsandpaper #miniatureart
“Sugarcane Harvest” Pastel on sandpaper 51cm x “Sugarcane Harvest” Pastel on sandpaper 51cm x 14cm Museum glass and kiaat frame #pastelart #pastellandscape #panorama #chalkpastel #hardpastel #softpastel #sugarcane
“Klein Wêreld” tiny art group exhibition cata “Klein Wêreld” tiny art group exhibition catalogue is now online. Find the link on my profile page. Click on each image to page through the catalogue. This image: “Sugarcane cutter Sharpening his Panga” 18cm x 23cm Pastel on sandpaper framed with kiaat and museum glass #pastelart #miniatures #pastelportrait #migrantworker #sugarcane #chalkpastel #hardpastel #softpastel
My world is getting smaller and smaller. I’m get My world is getting smaller and smaller. I’m getting dragged into the detail again. I wanted it to be more intuitive, more sketchy. I’ll try, again, to let go of constraints, with the next one. #pastelart #pastellandscape #pastelminiature #chalkpastel #hardpastel #softpastel #sugarcaneharvest #insaneamountoftime
Tiny works for the group show “Klein Wêreld” Tiny works for the group show “Klein Wêreld” this weekend 18 -20 July @rosemary_hill_farm Get your tickets at www.thegreenhousecafe.co.za/art-exhibition/ 1.Sugarcane Cutter in the Field II 18cm x 15cm 2.Gardener in the Shade 14cm x 9cm 3.Brick Makers 18cm x 18cm 4.Sugarcane Cutter in the Field I 16cm x 16cm #pastelportraits #pastelart #chalkpastel #miniaturepastelpaintings #hardpastel #softpastel #southafricanworker #migrantworker
Looking forward to take part in “Klein Wêreld - Looking forward to take part in “Klein Wêreld - a wonderland of small art”. 18 - 20 July @rosemary_hill_farm Get your tickets at www.thegreenhousecafe.co.za/art-exhibition/
Many of you are familiar with the feeling: frustra Many of you are familiar with the feeling: frustration of favourite colour finished. (Especially when the brand has been discontinued!) @psyx3 remembered my plea on Instagram in (2021!) for faber castell polychromos crayons, not pencils, and carried a piece of crayon in her hand bag ever since, in case she bumped into me. Sure enough, she bumped into me this week @trentgallery and made my day! Her present to me was my special colour 102, which was already discontinued years before the whole line went into exctinction. Thank you Lesley! 1. The frustration 2. “On the factory floor” finished for “Klein wêreld”, a pop up exhibition @rosemary_hill_farm by @wereld_sa 3. Framed 4. My precious #pastel #interior #pastelonsandpaper #miniatures #chalkpastel #hardpastel #softpastel
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Contact Info
+27 82 218 1906
Pretoria South Africa
lena@lenahugo.com

Copyright Lena Hugo