The Cape Gallery: Hinterland

Author Sally Andrew will be introducing Peter van Straten and B. Ernest Manfunny on First Thursday 4 October 2018 at The Cape Gallery. This exhibition will be on until Saturday 27 October 2018.

The greatest conceivable goal of art is the reawakening of life-affirming truth in the viewer. It is therefore our fondest hope that the work that we’ve made for Hinterland might inspire others to embark on their own journeys to profoundly wild and quiet places. ~Peter van Straten

As a romantic, I dream of a distant land, free and wild, full of mystery and adventure. Here time is replaced by space. I call this place Eden. Sometimes I actually go there.
The desire to create in this space is strong. I use abstract watercolour to express what I feel and experience. Then, with pencil, I add details of what I see.  ~B. Ernest Manfunny

Peter van Straten 
“Nothing ruins a grandiose sense of self like a hyperactive sense of irony. I am prevented therefore from uttering with any seriousness an ambition that is non-the-less heartfelt: to celebrate, with a single iconic image, each uniquely intriguing facet of human existence.
This task would of course take many lifetimes, and while I might conceivably have many lives it is doubtful whether I would remember my task from one life to the next; becoming instead the postmaster at Wellington, then a bureaucrat in Bangladesh, followed by a housewife in Durban – each without the slightest interest in illustrating the human condition. For this reason I am driven by a deep sense of urgency in this lifetime – straining against the undertow of time to expand my understanding of the light bulb moments I am determined to illustrate. Luckily for me I find the story of Sisyphus more amusing than tragic, and my favourite word in the English language is Nympholepsy, which, to paraphrase the Oxford dictionary, is ecstasy or madness caused by pursuit of the unattainable. If anything it is reassuring to know that one’s journeying will never be threatened by something as crass as destination, and it is pure bliss to paint that journey.”

B. Ernest Manfunny 
Manfunny is a vagabond and recluse. He uses watercolour and pencil to explore the emotions and sensations we experience when contemplating the fantastical Universe around and within us. His gentle watercolours and delicate pencil works have delighted viewers at The Cape Gallery as part of the annual winter solstice exhibitions.

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