Statement I matriculated in 1978 and studied further at the University of South Africa, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Psychology. I love animals and have a passion for horses. I used to compete in show jumping and competed in the showing team representing the Free State. When I was pregnant with my second child I had a accident in the jumping ring and was advised to stop riding. This left me in a quandary of what to do. A friend saw me do some drawings and suggested I should try my hand at it. My husband Peter bought me a book on oil painting and since that day in 1997 I am totally addicted to painting. I started out by spending many months and countless hours copying paintings from the Old Masters. When we moved from Welkom (in the Free State) to Cape Town I studied at the Ruth Prowse School of Art and Design and I did life drawing at the Frank Joubert Art Centre. I have always admired artists from America and I joined the Portrait Society of America in 2000. In 2002 I joined them for their annual Portrait Conference and in 2006 I was awarded with a tuition scholarship from the Portrait Society of America and in 2008 I went to America for the third time to join the conference and to learn from the worlds premier portrait artists. In 2010 I invited one of the Portrait Conference teachers to my studio to give a portrait workshop. In 2011 I did a course at ACASA (Academy of Classical Art South Africa) in Classical Drawing based on the methods of the Florence and Angel Academy in Florence Italy. I paint in oils and enjoy doing drawings in graphite. Once I have completed a painting or a drawing I frame my own work. I only use the best art materials available in the world today. The canvas I use is Belgium Linen and I do have a preference for Rembrandt and Winsor and Newton Artist grade oil paints. I would prime my canvas first and once the primer has dried, I will put a wash on it before I start the drawing and then the painting. I think about and plan my paintings carefully. I want my paintings to be a honest representation of my experiences. In most cases those experiences involves another person or animal. What interests and challenges me is to captivate the expression or emotion of one moment in time. Once composition is determined, I will draw a head study in graphite. I will then draw my subject on canvas with paint (earth colour). Colour relationships, colour temperature and values will be established from life. I will ask the sitter to come to the studio for a live sitting. I will then continue to paint the portrait from the digital photographs that I have taken and loaded onto my computer. Working from digital photographs! Yes, I work from life and digital photography and I am aware of the pitfalls of photography. The limitations of the value range, warped proportions, loss in colour and intensity, and limitations of depth of field. Working from life also has its limitations. The sitter is not always available and at times like this I have to make use of modern technology. An artist has the ability to edit and alter what he/she has observed. Whether working from live or a photograph. I use my reference photos as a starting point and alter them significantly in order to achieve the final composition. I work in oils and light dictates the way I set up my paintings. Sometimes I work wet-in-wet without allowing the paint to dry between layers of application, and other times I apply wet oil colour over layers of dry oil colour. I am fascinated by colour and have studied colour intensively. I enjoy texture in my paintings and often use the palette knife. What I strive for and hope to achieve everytime I paint is to see my subject as an abstraction and to place the little shapes of colour in the right place on my canvas with correct value and edges. Why I paint? The adrenaline rush that I get when I see something that makes me run for my paints and brushes and then the challenge to capture it on canvas. “Painting has given me a better understanding of myself, of life and of human existence and I will always be a student of painting and I hope to always express myself in a truthful and honest way”. Awards and Memberships 1998 One of the winners in an international competition held in the USA, work and biography included in the 11th edition of The Encyclopedia of Living Artists published in the USA 1999 Short-listed finalist for the Zonnebloem Art of Wine Competition, held at the National Gallery in Cape Town 2002 Attended the Art of the Portrait Conference (Portrait Society of America) in Philadelphia 2006 Awarded a Tuition Scholarship by the Portrait Society of America 2006 Attended the Art of the Portrait Conference (Portrait Society of America) in Dallas 2008 Attended the celebration of the 10th Art of the Portrait Conference (Portrait Society of America) in Philadelphia     Special Invitations and Publications 1998 Referenced in the 11th edition of The Encyclopedia of Living Artists, USA 2000 Designed the cover of the annual "Blue Book" of the Southern Peninsula, painting featured on the cover 2000 Painting named "Fire" was included in the Cape of Flames, published in 2000 in Cape Town 2000 Iinvited to take part in the Renaissance 2000 Project in the USA 2000 Invited to exhibit her work in the World Fine Art Gallery in New York 2000 Invited to take part in the Libertine Art Auction, held in Cape Town     Exhibitions 1999 Solo exhibition at Lanzerac Hotel, Stellenbosch 2000 Group exhibition, South African Society of Artists, Kirstenbosch 2000 Solo exhibition in her Noordhoek Studio 2001 Group exhibition, Original Cape Art Group, Kirstenbosch 2001 Solo exhibition at Longbeach Mall Art Gallery, Noordhoek 2002 Group exhibition at Lindbergh Arts Foundation, Muizenberg 2005 Solo exhibition at Vanilla Canvas Galleries, Wynberg 2006 Group exhibition with Constantia Art Society, Kirstenbosch 2007 Group exhibition with Constantia Art Society, Kirstenbosch 2007 Group exhibition with Professional Cape Artists, Kirstenbosch 2007 Group exhibition for "Baboon Matters" at Kirstenbosch 2008 Solo exhibition at The Lindbergh Arts Foundation 2008 Group exhibition, Kirstenbosch 2009 Work on exhibition at the Noordhoek Longbeach Art Gallery 2011 Classical Drawing Course                                                    2012    Organized and participated in the Judith Carducci Landscape and Portrait Workshops [Biography - Sonia Jacka - 18Ko]