The

IdleAn artist who

excelled in

various genres

 

A MIGHTY oak of the world of the arts in Durban has fallen. Andrew Verster has died aged 83. And this oak had so intertwined with the surrounding artistic foliage that all kinds of facets of the arts feel the loss.

Verster was a painter. He also produced sketches. He designed costumes for the theatre, as well as stage sets. He wrote short stories and radio plays. He once won the BBC World Service Playwriting Competition with You May Leave, The Show Is Over. He produced tapestries that hang in various parts of this country and elsewhere, including Oxford University.

The Arts and Culture Trust (ACT) recognised this prodigious and multi-faceted output with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Pieter Scholtz, convenor of the St Clement's arts soiree (where Verster was a diffident, self-effacing regular) describes him as having been "truly a renaissance spirit."

"Andrew and I had been kindred spirits for many years. He illustrated many of my books with truly evocative pen and ink drawings which added new dimensions to the stories."

Arts writer Caroline Smart – who has the website artSMart – describes Verster as an incredible artist who had the capacity to move into all kinds of different areas.

"He designed costumes, painted, sketched, wrote … he was always on the move. Andrew was an integral part of Durban's cultural enterprise, yet a man of great humility."

Sculptor Andries Botha: "Andrew was always in my entire existence in Durban a place from which you could measure yourself. In many respects the way he encouraged creativity, the way that he was professional and productive, and more importantly the way he was always warm and approachable, kind of made the artistic process more human for all of us younger people."

Sculptor Hannah Lurie: "He was the brother I never had, I was the sister he never had."

They went together to the Cite des Arts in Paris on four occasions as guests of the French government, where they were provided with studios for a month at a time and immersed themselves in French arts and culture. They also went together to Israel on an arts tour.

I myself have hanging in my flat one of Andrew Verster's.  sketches in Japanese mode, used to illustrate one of Pieter Scholtz's haiku verses. I certainly value it.

Andrew Verster's memory will be honoured at a special gathering of the arts soiree at St Clement's restaurant, on the Berea, on Friday morning.

 

Anarchy

IAN Gibson, poet laureate of Hillcrest, pens some lines on the performance of the EFF duriug the Sona address in Parliament.

The nation's awash with political analysts,

Not to mention dozens of 'erudite' panellists;

But none have agreed

On how to proceed,

To save us from EFF anarchists.

 

 

Tailpiece

 

AN ARTIST has been working on a nude portrait, bringing perfection with every stroke of his paint brush to this rendition of the female form. But one morning when his model arrives, he suggests they take it easy for a change and have a glass of wine instead.

They chat away, getting to know each other for the first time. Time passes. They have a couple more glasses. Then they hear a car pulling up outside.

He jumps up. "Oh no, it's my wife! Quick, take off your clothes!"

 

Last word

The squeaking wheel doesn't always get the grease. Sometimes it gets replaced. - Vic Gold

 r, Wednesday, February 19, 2020