Dirk Pretorius OAS – portfolio

May venues

381 Art More Lovely

Inspired by Batsford Arboretum. Oil on canvas board. 40cm x 30cm This is the third painting to emerge from my many visits to Batsford Arboretum. For me it offers such a variety of form, colour and scale at different times of the year. My first effort was a tiny, almost monochrome painting, also featuring the bridge, 15cm x 15cm, which was sold at my first Artweeks show in 2011. The second painting sold at our C21 Art Group’s exhibition at Woodstock Museum last year.

Leopard’s Lair, Zimbabwe. Oil on canvas board. 30cm x 40cm This painting emerged from a childhood memory of my father and neighbouring farmers going out at night to hunt a rogue leopard that had killed a number of calves and lambs. It seems serene but as a child I was worried if my father would return safely. Such was farming life in 1950s Africa! ‘Leopard’s Lair’ is the first of a planned pair. The second painting will aim to capture the raw threat of the occasion in the mind of a child.

Exhibition information

As a self-taught artist, I have been painting for 15 years. My preferred medium is oil, and I enjoy painting landscapes, both local and Southern African from where I originate. I first exhibited in Artweeks in 2011 and periodically since then.
I am a long-standing member of the C21 Art Group, and I have exhibited with them in venues such as The North Wall, St Hilda's College and the Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock.
I became a member of Oxford Art Society in 2018