The iconic Wine Bearer sculpture by Toby Megaw that welcomes guests to La Motte is now also available as a lovely black and white linocut.
This beautiful work was inspired by the J.H. Pierneef suite of 128 linocuts displayed throughout the estate as well as the Ink on Paper exhibition, showcasing printmaking techniques, that was hosted in the La Motte Museum during 2018/19.
To complement the Ink on Paper exhibition and to celebrate the art of printmaking, La Motte commissioned the well-known South African printmaker, Theo Paul Vorster, to create a linocut of Toby Megaw’s The Wine Bearer and to capture her calming influence and stature that is at once, humble and proud, strong and sensitive.
The Namibian born Vorster majored in printmaking, specifically silkscreen and etching, from the University of Stellenbosch. He resides in Cape Town and has been a full-time artist and printmaker since 1996. In 2006 he started to experiment with linocuts, which soon became his trademark medium. Acclaimed for his limited-edition hand-coloured linocut prints, his prints have been included in various solo and group exhibitions across the country.
In acknowledgement of one of South Africa’s pioneering printmakers, J.H. Pierneef, Vorster created a traditional black and white linocut of The Wine Bearer for the La Motte commission. The linocut has been hand-printed on 50% cotton Fabriano Rosaspina paper as an edition of 50. Framed and unframed artworks are available for sale from the La Motte Farm Shop. (Linocut only: R2800. Linocut with frame: R3600.)
A print is created by incising an image into a matrix (like a linoleum tile, for example), inking the image, and then running it through a press onto a piece of paper. By repeating this process, multiple impressions of the same image can be produced. Fine art prints, as they are known collectively, are considered original works of art, even though they can exist in multiples, or editions. The original lino tile from which the editions were printed, has also been specially hand-painted by Vorster for permanent display in the La Motte Museum.
