4F(lowers) Sake IV Painting

Heidi Shedlock is a South African, Durban based artist who paints from her studio in Durban North. She was born in 1974 and grew up in a very creative family of talented crafters and makers. She spent many years involved in education before deciding to give up full time teaching and put all her energy and focus back into producing her own work. Her work finds narrative in expressive florals that communicate the response to the blooms rather than the realistic depiction of them. Flowers are so often used as a means of communicating, especially when words are harder to use. They express grief, gratitude, thanks and so much more. They are present bystanders at most life events and occasions and provide beauty and joy and reflections on life's journey. Heidi underpins or embeds these bouquets or florals in textures and patterns that pay homage to the matrilineal. Patterns of lace, the hand stitched and fabric are like traces of memory embedded in the surfaces of many of her works.