Avril Thomas’ road to painting started when COVID-19 was declared. Everything shut down, and for many, it seemed the world was coming to an end and many more sensitive people struggled with panic. While the world may never recover from the way we knew it, many of us have made new roads from what went before and Avril’s new road started with painting.
Avril studied art at school and later enrolled at the College of Art in Johannesburg, but she was a restless soul and it did not hold her attention. She was offered a place on the stage and she flourished. “I lived a few years of wonderful dance, entertainment, glitz and glam (others may call it tits and bums). I made fabulous lifelong friends and met my soulmate, but this frantic, super exciting lifestyle is only a moment in a long life and is meant for the young.”
Avril and her husband, Viv, travelled an exciting, pleasurable and diverse path, moving countries more than once before finally settling in Portugal in their autumn years. Avril’s art was put on hold all this time, mainly because there did not seem to be enough hours in the day to indulge herself.
In March 2020, Avril started online art classes. “It seemed a good thing to do, as everything else had shut down. It allowed me to open old doors and the window of memory and let the inspiration flow in. My classes were filled with all the different mediums that are out there: acrylic, mixed media, oils, inks, charcoal and graphite. I indulged them all and loved them all.”
The budding artist has continued with her online classes for the past three years which have allowed her to create a diverse range of work. “I have felt my passion grow and my heart sigh with satisfaction when I step back from each painting and decide, ‘it is done’.”
She has yet to settle on a particular theme or style and has spent many an hour watching artists create online. But she loves to paint faces and flowers. “Flowers inspire me – the delicateness of them and their beauty. Faces of beauty mixed with fruit or flowers excite me because of the use of mixed media, ink, sticking, and pasting and watercolour. The final piece makes you walk up close to see the mix and then step back and see how it all pulls together.”
Avril collects images and ideas until she gets the urge to pull out a canvas or piece of paper and the magic begins. Sometimes, she starts a piece and leaves it for a while, which is quite annoying for her husband because she paints at the kitchen table. “Viv has the patience of Jove and is always so encouraging. The encouragement may be to get my stuff off the kitchen table!”
Just recently, Avril has started to paint turbulent water. “I am useless at capturing the beauty of the sea and waves, but I think I can capture the turbulence of water when it is disturbed by something or someone.” She likes to work with thick, enforced acrylic on this subject to get the old masters’ look.
She confesses that she is not a dedicated artist; she paints when the whim takes her and admits that the commercial edge of it is secondary to the thrill of seeing the pleasure on the faces of others when they look at her work. “My belief is, never to settle because then the challenge dies and it becomes a job.”
Part of the joy of Avril’s work is that her creations are made for my pleasure and their vibrancy and colour is sure to delight others as much as they do her.
