Hattingh, Margot (South African, 1951- ) Snow Leopard. Oil on artist board. Signed lower right Margot Hattingh and dated 93. In good condition. Measures 23 ” x 30 ” wide. Gilt frame measures 29” x 36”.

From Fineartportfolio.co.za: Margot Hattingh developed a passion for drawing and painting at an early age, and while still very young decided to become an artist. She has had no formal training, but is mostly self-taught through endless experimentation. In her early 20’s, instead of the planned move to Paris to further her art studies, she went on a safari and fell totally in love with the bush. An enduring fascination and passion for Africa, both as an idea as well as a place, was born. For the next 12 years, Margot and her partner lived and traveled in the wild places of Southern Africa and what was then South West Africa. “We photographed and wrote articles on wildlife as well as two books, “Etosha” and “Zululand” published by Struik in the early 80’s,” comments Margot. In spare moments her sketchbooks were filled with eyes, ears – parts as well as whole animals; sometimes just a line of movement.“In the same way that there is a heartbeats’ space between action and reaction, there is a gap – sometimes a chasm - between us and everything in our environment. In there, I believe we imbue people, animals, places and things with our ‘shadow selves’. This is where I find my work” said Margot of her motivation. Style & Format On the surface the pieces produced by this South African artist may seem to range from highly realistic/figurative to abstract, but beneath that, they are all concerned with recording explorations of an ever changing perception of reality – physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and of course mythical.Profoundly rooted in Africa but with an inevitable overlay of European culture and history, she strives to develop a new reality in her African art where two supposedly opposing cultures come together in a synthesis greater and more beautiful than the sum of its parts.Margot paints people and places, but returns time and time again to what she calls “Beasts” obsessed/possessed by certain animals and themes trying not only to capture some physical likeness, some sense of ‘Presence’ but also to materialize the essentially invisible essence of the particular subject. Technically the images are worked with a variety of media – sometimes singly, more often mixed on paper, masonite, wood, canvas or perspex. She uses pastels both oil and chalk, watercolour, acrylic, oils, resin and wax encaustic. Margot really enjoys printmaking, etchings, collographs and monotypes, as well as bronze sculpture, both relatively new directions for her. Exhibitions In November 2004 Margot Hattingh was delighted to be chosen to form a part of a five person international volunteer team, all professional artists, working at the Nek Chand sculpture garden in Chandigarh, India, for a month. She was the only South African artist to have taken part in this program. This outside art sculpture garden, the second most visited site in India after the Taj Mahal, was begun in the 1950’s, using waste material. The oldest sculptures are now in need of sensitive, painstaking repair. Margot was one of the invited printmakers, representing South Africa, at an international printmaking exhibition in 2007, the theme being “Strangers”. This exhibition featured in the Xchanges Gallery in Victoria, Canada, before travelling on to Quebec and Vancouver. From there it went to the United States and New Zealand. Margot Hattingh sometimes experiments with fabric. She has had a fibre art, mixed media wall hanging accepted for the prestigious Innovative Threads traveling exhibition. After touring South Africa, this exhibition went to France in the beginning of 2002. Margot regularly exhibits her African artworks in South Africa and has also exhibited overseas in group shows at Christies in London as well as Axis Gallery in New York. She has been selected a few times for the Vuleka competition, and won the first prize for her mixed media painting in the annual South African Society of Artists competition in 2003. Margot’s paintings are to be found in private collections in America, Canada, England, Europe and Japan as well as in South Africa and Namibia.