Jocobus Wynand Louw 1933

Who is this artist who has captured many art lovers’ hearts with his beautiful technique and brave use of colour?  What makes Kobus the artist that we see today? 

Kobus Louw has been a art lover from a very young age, especially visual arts.

His father was a teacher and believed that art was not a solid foundation for success and Kobus missed out on an art education.  He never got any formal art training, not during his school years nor thereafter.  Kobus was self-taught and he is in his own words an “outodidak” and what he knows about art is what he taught himself and out of his experience. Kobus experimented with his subject matter and paints farm landscapes, fisherman’s villages as well as the most beautiful stil lives.  His use of colour does remind of artists like Gregoire Boonzaier and Dawid Botha but with a certain vibrancy that is unequalled.  He adds a bright sweep of colour in his landscapes that make you appreciate his spontaneity.   Kobus doesn’t neglect his negative spaces and makes his art work in such a way that it captures the viewer’s attention and keeps it.

During his 38 years of working for a financial company, Kobus used every available  moment, during week-ends as well as during holidays to paint. It was during this time that he participated in solo- as well as group exhibitions in Stellenbosch, Paarl, Somerset-West and Cape Town.  His first exhibition was in the Art Room, Edrich, in Stellenbosch.

In 1992 Kobus went on pension and in 1997 he moved to his beach house in Hermanus.

With no-other responsibilities, Kobus could now focus on his true calling and love, his painting.  Kobus is a very private person and quotes well known French Impressionist

Edgar Degas (1834-1917) when he says “Dit is wonderlik om bekend te wees, solank jy onbekend kan bly.”  Spoken like a true artist! 

He has great admiration for South African artists.  Artists like Pieter Wenning and Jean Weltz really inspired him. Kobus would never dream of telling people which art to love and not.  He believes that taste is not something to quibble about.  “De Gustibus non disputandum est”.

It is artists like Kobus Louw, with his raw talent, hard work and perseverance that makes South African talent what it is today.  Louw’s images capture yet another facet of the truth of nature, the fleeting quality of living beauty. The ephemeral effect is realized largely in his technical procedure, which suggests the individual flower forms, but does not define them.