Beauty in the details
Published Friday November 6th, 2009
South African artist Valerie Biebuyck says since moving to Darlings Island in 2007 her sights have been set on the Kennebecasis River in its gentle and generous glory
Valerie Biebuyck says the people in New Brunswick are as gentle and generous as the riverside setting she used as a subject in a recent series of photographs.
The South African artist moved to Darlings Island almost three years ago and has recently shown her first solo exhibition at Hooper Studios in Hampton.
“I had done photography since the age of six,” Biebuyck said, standing in the centre of the Hampton gallery on a recent afternoon. “It was a revelation to me to see (my photos) together. I was thrilled.”
The exhibition, called Light Phantasmagorical, will be taken down toward the end of the day on Nov. 7. The show celebrates Biebuyck’s spirituality and an appreciation for nature’s details.
Biebuyck said since moving to New Brunswick she has been fascinated with its natural splendour.
“I was amazed at how close nature is and how accessible it is,” she said. “(My husband and I) are forever being surprised at the absolute beauty.”
The exhibition boasts a series of photographs of the Kennebecasis River and works based on historic doors in uptown Saint John.
There are also portraits of locals in and around the Saint John City Market.
Biebuyck grew up in Cape Town, South Africa and worked in computing most of her life, she said.
“Through my whole career in computing I was the sole breadwinner for quite a while and I had two children to bring up,” Biebuyck recalled. “Art was in the background.”
Her interest in painting and photography remained strong and Biebuyck took night classes in her spare time to hone her craft.
Since Biebuyck moved to Canada with her husband she has been able to work on her art full time.
“Computing was very exciting but very stressful and a lot of interaction with people everyday,” she said. “As the consultant I was the person in between the technology and the business. All of a sudden here I was in my little studio which looks out on a beautiful view across the river, spending hours and hours of time on my laptop all alone. I like to go out alone because I don’t want the distraction of other people.”
Biebuyck said she experienced a period of artistic growth while spending her days along the river bank with her two dogs at her side.
“I’ve realized a dream I’ve had since I was six years old to be able to concentrate on art and photography.”
While she revels in the beauty around her home on Darlings Island, Biebuyck said it hasn’t been easy to be away from her native country.
“On the one hand (it has been) good, but on the other hand bad,” she said. “I miss my family terribly and friends as well. I’ve got friends (and family) there and it was really hard to be away from them. It was hard to come here but on the other hand people were incredibly warm and friendly and very welcoming and it’s such a beautiful place.”
The exhibition displays a series of tight shots of the river – some when the water was low and revealed “all this red mud,” Biebuyck said, and some when the water was high and shone a vibrant blue.
Biebuyck said she feels that God speaks to her through the beauty of the surroundings and said she only plays with the brightness, contrast and saturation of her digital images.
“Whatever is here was in the original photograph and I’ve drawn most features out.”
Biebuyck said she focused on detailed, close-up photographs because it expressed the closeness of the beauty she was seeing.
She said her art has changed since moving to Canada.
“In South Africa I always looked to the horizon,” she said. “There is a long, big horizon and beautiful, huge mountains; a different kind of beauty and here I saw beauty in the details. I would look down at the river and I’d see this beautiful scene and I would look through my camera and see a microcosm of it.”
To learn more about Biebuyck’s work, visit her website at www.phototropical.com.
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