Pieter De Villiers
Pieter De Villiers-Art that inspires and gives hope
he said
“I love design, clean lines and textures. I love creating beautiful things. I enjoy setting personal goals and challenges to express myself in different mediums and styles, whether it is painting in oils or acrylics, or sculpting in clay, carving, or fiddling in mixed media…. there is always a story to tell and an emotional attachment to all subjects and objects.
My art is to inspire and to give hope. I talk through shape, symbolism, parables and meanings to carry a story for many generations to come.”
Pieter’s romance with art started at school level. While he loved drawing and painting in acrylics, he envied the senior students sculpting, as he loved the smell of the raw material they worked with.
It is presumably at Andre’s Bird Taxidermy, where his foundations as a sculpting artist was instilled and molded. He taught himself to replicate what he saw. The golden rule in taxidermy is “The better you can trick the eye a better artist you become”.
It was, however, during his days as a graphic designer that he really learnt to bend lines. The quality of your design determines the quality of your end product and monotonous perfection, however, he wanted to be more expressive as an artist. Pieter founded his own studio, Purple Puppy, specializing in product design and laser cutting in various industries.
Throughout the years he always created, painted and designed in acrylics, oils and water colours. Through the challenges and the ripple effect during the pandemic, he began his interesting journey in carving foam sculptures, with his first sculpture being exhibited at the Zeitz Mocca Museum at the Waterfront in Cape Town.
Furthermore, he created maquettes and other sculptures. Two of these sculptures were cast in bronze. These were also exhibited at the Zeitz Mocca Museum. He was later commissioned to design and create a two-meter-high laser cut stainless steel sculpture, of one of his adored dancing nudes. This sculpture is presently installed at Stanford Hills Guest Farm.