Paul Blomkamp

Paul Blomkamp was born in Johannesburg in 1949.

At the age of 19 Blomkamp was awarded a commission for one of the (then) biggest Stained Glass windows in the world. Disregarding the traditional methods used to make stained glass windows, Paul became fascinated with the medium which he interpreted in his designs as coloured light.
This led to his being awarded a number of stained glass commissions for various public and corporate buildings.  

However, since 1993 he has decided to concentrate exclusively on his painting.

Paul seeks to paint the invisible.

 

At the age of 10 years Paul’s hero was the artist Paul Klee.  

Not so much because of his beautiful paintings, but because of a few simple words he said, ‘I am here to make the invisible visible.’ Paul’s paintings are about energy.  

Invisible energy which he sees move and sparkle around him, just as surely as he sees the sun dancing on the surface of the sea.
Paul says, ‘There are no words to describe the invisible I see.

 There is just the painting I paint in a sacred place.  

A place free from race or culture. Free from religion or philosophy. A place free from any definition of  who I am. I paint in the ‘clouds of unknowing’ and as an old 14thcentury monk said, ‘ when you are in the clouds of unknowing then everything is illuminated.’

 

The influence of his stained glass work on his paintings is strong. His paintings seem to transmit rather than reflect light. They have a transparency and clarity and sharpness akin to glass and often appear to be made of coloured light rather than of paint.

 

Blomkamp’s work deals with the anatomy of energy. He is preoccupied with energy, what it is, what it looks like, because of an illness that left him without any energy of his own for many years. His paintings are celebrations of energized lines, shapes and space that throb and glow with care strong colour, existing solely for ways to illuminate the dark and unknown.

 

Major commissions :

Stained glass windows for St Stithians College Chapel, State Theatre Pretoria, ABSA Bank, Greek Orthodox Church Rosebank.

Paintings: Telkom Headquarters, Germiston Civic Centre, Kellogs, Investec and 3M Headoffice