Albert Coerste "Phantom "Pass, Knysna", Oil on valchromat,100 x 100cm, 

Coertse also deconstructs the colour used in his paintings.  You can count the colours that are placed into the quadrants, which is a strong contrast to nature where millions of different colours are incorporated. His work is about simplifying his environment- quantifying it. The area: 'Phantom Pass' named for the Phantom Moth in the area, lies north of Sedgefield in the Karatara area and is approximately 30km west of Knysna. Perched atop the plateau and surrounded by farmland and breathtaking indigenous forests, it comprises Welsyndorp, Bergvallei and Bosdorp. Established in the 1940's, Karatara served as a housing settlement for the displaced forestry workers active within the Knysna Indigenous Forests at the time.

Albert Coertse incorporates 'Pointillism' * into his work. Standing up close to the panels, you have no idea of the shape or form of the work. However, standing back at a distance (+- 2 metres), the colours blend together forming the complex detail within the painting. 

*Pointillism is the name for a way of painting, in which colour effects are obtained optically rather than by mixing colours on the palette: ie. Small areas of pure colour are put side by side on the panel so that at a distance the eye cannot differentiate between them but mixes them together as experiences another colour (optical mixing). 

 "If the man who only paints what he sees before him were an artist, the king of artists would be the photographer."

 James Abbott Whistler (U.S: 1834 – 1904)

Click here to view more works:

.