Petra Schutte is a born and bred Bloemfontein artist. Schutte completed and received her BA Fine Arts degree in 2017 at the University of the Free State, specializing in printmaking and drawing. She has taken part in several student exhibitions, group exhibitions and participated in various art competitions, and has received fine art awards and academic awards. Schutte also forms part of the Free State Art Collective (FSAC (www.freestateartcollective.co.za), an initiative, created by Karen Brusch, in helping and creating a platform for Free State artists.
Schutte creates her own imaginative world of textures, marks, stains, organic markings, used organic objects and technical marks. She is fascinated with markings, stains, colour pigmentations and textures. These marks are all around us but we tend to overlook their subtleties due to technological advancement. The aim of her work is for the viewer to move closer, to be made aware of what they are looking at, allowing the viewer to form their own innovative, original and imaginative world. Giving the viewer free reign in creating and interpreting what they wish to see. Allowing the viewer to experience a pareidolia (imagined patterns seen in random markings) and a terra incognita (a term used in cartography for regions that have not yet been mapped or documented), in between the constant flow of marks and textures.
Competition history:
2021 Entrant
2018 Merit Award
2017 Entrant
2016 Entrant