Harold Kimmel
Harold was born in Johannesburg, and qualified as a Civil Engineer in 1963 at the University of the Witwatersrand.
After working as a Consulting Engineer he started his own construction company.
In 1987 he graduated with a Masters degree in engineering and 1989 a doctorate in business management.
He and his family moved to Cape Town in 1996 and he took up watercolour painting in 2000.
He has no formal training but enjoys every minute spent painting.
“Painting is one of those wonderful and totally absorbing pastimes and has a therapeutic effect to boot” he says.
He works from photographs and his own imagination and sometime a pastiche of both.
Harold agrees that watercolour is one of the most difficult of media to master, being far more unforgiving than oils, acrylics or pastels.
“You get only one chance when painting with watercolours , as you cannot go back and correct any errors.
Not only this, but any white or highlights must be left unpainted initially, as you cannot put these in later.
Nevertheless it is worth the effort to achieve the beautiful translucent and soft effects.
When painting a watercolour, part of the magic is the seeming life of their own water and paint have, when applied to paper.
Sometimes the effects are amazing
The trick is to get the paint to “dance” on the paper, and then every now and then something mysterious happens and the painting almost paints itself, and you achieve an almost blissful state and can lose yourself in what is in reality, just a small painting.
Hours pass in what seems like minutes and you forget that the first syllable of painting is “pain”
All pictures are imperfect and one has to consciously taken the challenge and dare to make a mistake.
All in all it is a diabolically difficult medium to work in, but the rewards and the challenge more than compensate for this.
Art is a Passion and comes straight from the soul and the heart!!”
His style is eclectic and he favours bright and striking colours in landscapes and flowers and tries to keep away from the old fashioned watercolours that to him are always too muted or dark”
His works have been exhibited in “Government Avenue” in the Gardens and at “The Joan St. Leger Lindbergh Arts Foundation” in Muizenberg, and a most successful one man exhibition in the foyer of the “ARTSCAPE Theatre Complex” in Cape Town in 2008, 2010 as well as 2011..
His works are hung in private homes all over the world and one of his biggest thrills is to enter a home and just for a few seconds not recognize his own work.,
Harold has been married for 45 years to cellist Marian Lewin and they have three sons.
Harold@kimmel.co.za
“Art Begins When Imitation Ends” - Oscar Wilde.
Harold Kimmel joined Fine Art America on April 1st, 2011.
