“My work invites the viewer to experience a moment captured in time, and in doing so, hopefully creates an awareness of the fragility of time – how precious every second can be, how a single moment can have a lasting effect, change our perception, change our life.”
Ingrid Uys was born in 1985 in Ermelo, Mpumalanga, and currently lives in Johannesburg. As a young girl, Uys spent most of her time painting and drawing the world around her. After years of art classes in different studios in different towns, Uys completed her BA Fine Art Degree in 2007 at the University of Pretoria, specialising in oil painting
From childhood, Uys’ exposure to nature, open spaces, different places and people nurtured a
curiosity about the world around her. For Uys, making drawings and paintings has always been a way to collect those moments and memories, expressing herself and her thoughts. The artist has become known for her detailed paintings and drawings depicting birds in flight. A fascination with the fleeting nature of time, and impermanence more generally, is a major theme in her work. Uys’ most recent collections have focused on hummingbirds, swallows and blossoms, with autumn leaves recently added to the mix. Combined, these symbolic elements become a metaphor for the capturing of moments and memories.
Uys’ signature style, represented in oils on canvas, denotes this dreamlike ephemerality through the selected colour palettes and soft lines. The perspective chosen by the artist also connects to particular moments in time, frozen impressions of a world constantly moving, constantly in flux. Uys personally connects to the metaphysical connotations of hummingbirds, relating to their ability to quickly respond to changes in the lived environment, the agility of redirection, refocusing, allowing oneself the time and space to hover and explore and express.
Through her growing body of work, Uys urges the viewer to think about the great importance of time, to experience the present, and notice the delicate beauty of the impermanent world.
