Workshop Group of Artists holds exhibition

 This group, with its deceptively simple name, consists of five talented Zimbabwean women who have met every fortnight for the last six years exchanging ideas, painting, and developing their skills in the visual arts.
Although a garage in Quinnington provides studio space for the artists, the exhibition is usually held in Chisipite, in the cool house and verdant garden of Leslie Johnson, an artist who specialises in figures, landscapes, buildings and wildlife.
Entrance is free, but donations for the workshop’s chosen charity are gratefully received. This year the beneficiary of the exhibition is Veterinarians for Animal Welfare Zimbabwe.
Last year a donation was made to Leonard Cheshire Zimbabwe, an organisation which provides life skills and support for Zimbabwe’s many disabled children and adults.
Last Sunday, art lovers streamed in and out, stopping to admire the large, beautifully framed canvases hung on the walls of the Johnsons’ living rooms. On the verandah were more pictures standing on easels, and a dramatic display of Peggy Sheppard’s graceful azure and green stoneware vases and containers.
On green lawns, beneath the shade of msasa trees, tea was being poured from a large silver teapot. Perfectly cut sandwiches resembling a still life by David Hockney were available throughout the day, and toothsome carrot and chocolate cakes could have come straight from the front cover of the magazine Food and Home.
I couldn’t resist chatting and passing the time of day with the numerous friends I met at the exhibition, but eventually went to take a closer look at the many works of art.
Although the workshop ladies are united by their passion for the arts and their essential love of Zimbabwe, their work couldn’t be more different or distinctive. Sheena Chadwick’s large oil on canvas landscapes are a delight and “Chimanimani Range” with its mystical blue mountain ranges, and arid baobab foreground, is the perfect painting to complete the décor of a stylish Harare home.
And if your doctor has advised you to get down to sea level for the sake of your blood pressure or failing heart, you might hang Chadwick’s stunning “Nyanga Afterglow” on the wall in your new Hout Bay townhouse, to remind yourself of the green, green grass of home.
Everyone has their own story about a close encounter with a herd of charging buffalo, a curious elephant at Mana Pools that took a fancy to the oranges in a camper’s rucksack, or about the time when a group of tourists were surrounded by a pack of painted dogs and lived to tell the tale.
Similarly, there are numerous paintings in different styles of painted dogs, each with its own appeal. Leslie Johnson’s “Painted Dogs” is an arresting study of a family at play. A handsome male in the foreground stands alert, the white brush on his tail in line with his strong haunches and piercing gaze. Two other dogs frolic, while a fourth animal, ever watchful, gazes in the direction of a possible intruder.
Marlene Bornman’s beautifully executed studies “Palm Seeds” and “Clivia and Strelitzia”, are bursting with colour and vitality, while Joan Dunstan’s witty sociological studies of every day life in Zimbabwe, impress with their skilful attention to detail.
Guest artist, Sarah Fynn, is well-known for her landscapes and wild life paintings. Once a member of the workshop group, she now teaches art at Peterhouse School in Marondera.
The Workshop Artists’ exhibition was well-timed. Not only did it give well organised shoppers an opportunity to buy Christmas presents, but a few hours after the last visitor went home, dark clouds rolled in, strong winds ruffled the jacaranda flowers and a light shower, foretaste of the rains to come, fell upon the streets and gardens of Chisipite.