Sally Arnold -

Sally is a professional botanical Fine Artist and designer. She holds a master’s degree in art history from Frankfurt University/Germany, and a Diploma in Botanical Art from the Society of Botanical Art/UK. She has exhibited bronzes, oil paintings and botanical drawings internationally since 1996, and is currently working on design signage, a mobile sculpture and public bronzes for a new school campus in Luxembourg.

Growing up on an isolated Great Karoo sheep farm, she was fascinated by sculptural and unusual flower and plant forms from an early age. These, together with colour and movement, inform her work and are a constant source of inspiration. Drawing attention to these exquisite metaphors for our own, transient, Earth presence seems imperative in the face of man’s exploitation of nature.
She adores thick, luxurious, handcrafted paper or fine linen canvas made in traditional mills. Using pure, organic materials, cured during natural drying processes, her painted oil surfaces develop a supple luminance resisting crackling. Varnishes are matt or sometimes glossy. Her work is based on drawing, is slow and artisanal, uses the very best materials and strives for technical mastery.

Sally’s studio will not be open, but she is holding the following project in conjunction with PACT (Prince Albert Community Centre) at the POP Centre.

PROJECT CONCEPT FOR PACT DURING OPEN STUDIOS 15 – 17 JUNE 2024

THEME:My friend as a flower – my vriend/in as n’ blommetjie

TEAM: Group of max. 15 children aged 6-15, guided by botanical artist Sally Arnold, assisted by
class leader Ethan Martin (PACT) and artist Elcado Blom

PROCESS: The children draw each other as flowers, using brushes and fabric paint on a long white sheet as a ‘canvas’ lying on the floor. To prep this, they will be asked to become familiar with flower pictures from South Africa in their usual PACT drawing group ahead of June. This
prep exercise will also serve to make children more familiar with local and South African
flowers and plants. Library books will be used for this exercise. Suitable books have been set
aside with librarian Reinie Smit at the PA library.
The project will also serve to illustrate the different characters of flowers and relate these
to the children themselves, who each and also have different characters.

Drawing/painting hours:
Saturday 15 June, 10:00 – 12:30, 14:00 – 17:00
Sunday 16 June, 10:00 – 12:30, 14:00 – 17:00
Monday 17 June, 10:00 – 12:30, 14:00 – 17:00 (or earlier if the project is finished)
Finissage (exhibition of finished drawing) Sunday evening or Monday – tbc on social
media
Once the drawing is completed – this will take two to three days – we will hang it up at Pop
Centre/PACT for people to view. The process can be filmed by one of the Knipoog media
team and photos used for PACT and Sally Arnold social media.
The painting can be folded up and put away for another occasion, once PAOS is over.

MATERIALS: Sally Arnold will provide a clean white sheet or suitable white fabric, fabric paint and brushes.
We will use max 3 colours chosen by the artist.