Gadding about art : an intervi

Gadding about art : an interview with artist Ann Gadd

Cape Town based artist Ann Gadd is well-known for her wit and humour, particularly with her popular ‘sheep art’ she spoke to Dominique Valente about the importance of fun in art and life.

Gadding about art : an intervi

Popular Cape Town artist Ann Gadd paints funny sheep and sometimes dogs, although mostly sheep, she notes with a grin. Her art takes a fun and humorous view of society — particularly the corporate world. She shared her views on art and life and the need for humour in both.

anngadd

What led you to become a professional artist?

I’ve always been passionate about art, but I believed it was a hobby rather than a career and so went into advertising where I spent more than two decades as an art director as it was about as close as I could get to being creative and earning an income. When I gave up fulltime work and went freelance, I started to paint and did my fair share of time in the artistic trenches with about ten years spent digging around and attempting different ideas and styles. In doing so, I created over 350 paintings and other artworks before I painted my first sheep and became “successful.”

Would you have ever thought that sheep would become your signature style?

No, I never said at the age of six, “When I grow up I want to be a sheep artist.” It surprised me that people responded so well to the sheep. But I think I’ve always known that humour would always play an important role in my life, from being the clown of the class at school, to its expression now in my art.

How important is humour to you in your life and art? 

Very important — there’s a real need for fun in life. At its core, art reflects the human condition and humour, is, I believe one of the better aspects of our natures. I choose to focus on what is amusing and inspiring as much as I can, rather than what is abhorrent and disintegrated. In a Ted video I watched recently, a woman describes her near death experiences and one of the five lessons she learnt was the importance of humour. She realised that if you want to change the way you are, you need to laugh more. It’s something I’ve always felt to be true. I was an alternative healer for years and I believe that with my sheep paintings I create, I’m still a healer in a way because I try to keep people laughing.

Describe your style?

It may sound arrogant to say the style is unique, (or maybe ewenique) but I can’t really find a titled box into which the style of the sheep would fit. Some aspects could be seen to have links to pop art, such as the use of irony, the depiction of the sheep in everyday life scenes, the jargon, and the illustrative feel but the style is not essentially pop art. Some people have said its naïve art, but it doesn’t fit into that definition at all. Surreal humour? Possibly in some works. But I guess the best option is to create a specific genre of art for sheep. So their genre is Baabaa or Baabaaism which is a derivation of Dadaism.

What inspires you?

Life. More specifically though, nature, especially anything water related, friends and the incredible thread of humour that weaves its way through our lives, if we only can see it.

Do you have a favourite painting? Yes, but it changes. So it will be my favourite painting until another replaces it. (I’m not as fickle however with men!) Right now it’s a painting that someone commissioned who likes wine and works at the Gherkin Building in London, the painting is entitled “Pickled at the Gherkin.” My dog painting “Heavy Petting” was the previous favourite. The painting of the wild coast, which won the South African Society of Artists Best painting in the acrylic category and which gave me the confidence to paint seriously, and remained a favourite for years. It’s like a holiday romance. You fall madly in love with the painting and then one day you start seeing that maybe you don’t like this about it, or you should have done that different, or the yellow would work better if it was more ochre… Tell us about your studio – I believe you’re a family of artists? What’s that like?

My poor son – he rebelled and is studying computer science. But my husband, daughter, and I paint; although Tess has been so busy working recently that she has little time. The good part is we can encourage each other and we know a good painting when we see it. The bad part is that an accountant or two in the family would have been a nice balance! The studio is a mess. We occasionally have a rush of blood to the head and start clearing up, but the semi-neatness only lasts a couple of days before its back to happy chaos. There is the odd tense moment when one of us might inadvertently spray paint over someone else’s painting, or someone uses another person’s favourite brush and doesn’t clean it, but generally we are an amicable lot.

What’s a day in the life like in Ann’s world?

Up at 6:00 to start walking at 6:30 for about 8km along the beachfront with a friend and my ever-faithful hound (inspiration behind many of her dog paintings). Then the ever-essential cappuccino (or two) afterwards. Shower. Fully charged up I’ll then decide what to do based on what needs to be done versus what I feel like doing. What needs to be done would involve admin (not my favourite), begging certain galleries for payment, (my absolute worst!) updating my website, packing paintings etc. What I feel like doing would involve painting, conceptualising, or writing.

Then Ant (my husband) and I meet for lunch – where he chops up salad for us. After which he has a short sleep while I answer emails and have a cup of coffee. Then it’s back to work and playing the “Should versus does my heart good” game. I finish work at around 7pm then have a drink with Ant followed by a light meal and unless I have an urgent job to get done, we will watch a series (Breaking Bad, The Killing, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, etc.). Sometimes we’ll see friends or one of the kids will be home so we’ll catch up with them. This ‘routine’ may be interspersed with trips to galleries, a Pilates class or stand up paddleboarding (have just started again after my leg break last year), we may have clients visit or meet a client to talk about a commission. It’s a whirlwind, but we like it.

Connect with Ann

Ann’s paintings are available from her website www.artforewe.co.za and you can follow her on twitter @ewetilize.