Adriaan Lotter (Artist)

Category: News & Written by monster On December-08-2023 14:19:04

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If you add a few additional astonishing attributes to “Immensely Gifted Artist”, what do you get? Well then please add: Well-educated Businessman, Successful Entrepreneur, World Champion Sportsman, Compassionate Citizen, Arresting Personality and Spiritual being. The outcome: Adriaan Lotter.
A creator and a gentleman who will be known for his Art throughout the world.
“With every piece one creates, you put your energy as well as your spirit into it and I believe that this energy and emotion connects with the viewer’s soul, and not so much the visible image of the painting only. It is my mission to connect with my audience on this soul level and to share the enjoyment and love of art”.

Education

Adriaan was born 29 July 1972 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He matriculated in 1990 and started studying telecommunications. He graduated in 1993 with a technical Diploma in Telecommunications and Transmission.

Business

He worked for Telkom as a technician for 7 years before moving to the United Kingdom in 1999 where he served as a fibre-optic and network engineer for ‘Cable & Wireless’ for four years upgrading their telecommunications network all over Britain. Adriaan returned home in 2003 where he started his own electronic security company, Netel Security, and continued managing the company until 2018.

During that time, he was continuously creating art on a part time bases but then decided that the stress of corporate life was affecting his health. He therefore took a bold step and decided to go into art full time, after all it was his passion and mission in life to paint and create.

Sport

Sport has also been a huge part of Adriaan’s life:
• In 1987 he started with martial arts and achieved a Nidan (second Dan) in karate
• He then changed styles and started competing in Muay Thai and MMA on a professional level
• He represented South Africa in the 2008 WTKA World Championships and won the WTKA Muay Thai world title in Italy
• He also won Silver and Bronze (also at the World Championships in Italy) in K1 (a form of kickboxing) in his weight division as well as in a weight division above his own
• Adriaan played club rugby after school for Diggers and Union rugby clubs in Johannesburg, South Africa and
• Played for the first team of the Melbourne, England rugby club as left wing

Hi Adriaan, what is the story of your art?

I am a self-taught artist. Art is integral to my existence. I was born an artist and creating art has been a passion since I can remember. I won my first art prize in Grade 3 when I was nine years old.
Growing up was not easy for me, fitting in was always a challenge, I had a very over protective dad that did not allow me much, as a result I spend most of my life.

growing up locked inside a 2 bedroom apartment with very little interaction with my peers except for school, where things weren’t much better. I was bullied very often (verbally and physically), and that had a negative impact on my self-esteem and self-belief. I guess this is where it all started for me, drawing was the only thing that kept me from losing my mind and in a sense a place to live out and capture my emotions on paper.
Throughout my business careers, art has been a passion of mine and it was a constant dream to eventually make a profession of art. Fear was however a major factor – I was scared that I would never be able to survive on just art. It was therefore a bold step for me to follow my dream to become a full-time artist and to open my own gallery.
Since I took that terrifying step, my time is my own and creating art is equivalent to being in a permanent state of meditation. I can easily devote ten hours a day to painting and it feels like only a fraction of the time that has passed. I sometimes loose days, thinking that it is Wednesday and finding out it is Saturday already. This sense of freedom brings a lot of peacefulness and relaxation into my life. I cannot think of a better way of making a living.

How do you experience your art?

I am my own biggest critic - my work hardly ever seems good enough for myself and I guess it’s the downside of trying to be perfect. Craving perfection, I am always in doubt if my art is good enough. But when I exhibit my work and I see people admire what I have created, it gives me a sincere sense of accomplishment. There is no better stimulus for me to find people being so much attracted to my art that they purchase something that I have created.

What is your art life mission?

With every piece one creates, you put your energy as well as your spirit into it and I believe that this energy and emotion connects with the viewers soul, and not so much the visible image of the painting only. It is my mission to connect with my audience on this soul level and to share the enjoyment and love of art.
I believe that with persistence, perseverance and believing in one-self that you can be anything and I want to be a great artist known for my skills and artwork. I know that doors will open for me, but until that happens I will take it one painting at a time.

How do you cultivate inspiration?

The life of an artist is not always an easy one. Sometimes life pushes you into a state of depression and you get discouraged and then it is not so easy to create. But the wonderful thing about art is that it is all about emotion. Even if you are feeling down and out, you can overcome the negativity by channelling those emotions and feelings into the object you are creating, then the magic transpires. Other times it is better to not force the subject – I know myself. If I am absolutely not in the mood, then I do something else that makes me happy – I listen to my favourite music or watch a movie. After that it does not take much for me to feel inspired and to pick up the brush again.
Inspiration to me means trying to better myself and my skill with every piece I do. If I can improve on the previous piece that I have done and I look back from where I started to where I am then, it totally encourages me to take on another challenge.

Which topics and styles give you most joy?

Portraits gives me pleasure as I love capturing emotions. I love painting people and nature. I have a very special place in my heart for our 4 legged friends.



Animals such as wildlife and horses are some of my favourite subjects as it is both a challenge and a delight to capture and portray powerfulness, grace, playfulness and watchful alertness



I’m also an adrenalin junky and fast motorbikes and cars get me very excited, especially if I get to paint the driver’s concentration and the amazing vehicles they drive. Of course, I also like riding and driving fast and furious cars and bikes.

What art mediums do you prefer?

I like working in different mediums as each different one has its own characteristics. It however depends on what I am planning to achieve in every specific artwork. I mostly work in acrylics and oil and I prefer the latter. The colours are more vibrant and if I am doing a realistic style painting, oil is my medium of choice.

Can you tell us more about these specific paintings?

I named this painting “Autumn Express”. It is Acrylic on Canvas 1.5m x 90 cm. It is one of my favourite paintings – a combination of brush and palette knife, using only vibrant Autumn colours. The piece just flowed off the brush with no effort at all.



The title of the painting above is “The Coming” (Oil on Canvas 200x100 cm). This is one of my prophetic art pieces. In 2017 I was given a prophecy by a complete stranger at that time. He introduced himself as a prophet and started prophesying over me. Although he did not know me at all, he started by saying “Adriaan, the Lord said you will pick up a new mantle and it will become your legacy. You will be a prophetic artist and your art will change nations.”

As you can imagine, I was very skeptical at the time. Me altering nations with my art was a little bit out of my comprehension. However, something amazing started happening with some of my art works. Hidden pictures appeared inside the painting images. I did not even notice it, until it was pointed out to me by a friend I knew. For instance, if you zoom into the picture of “The Coming” you will notice that instead of six horses, there are actually 13!

After that day I went back to some of my previous work and started noticing all these images inside my paintings. In the painting above, “Running Free” (Oil on Canvas 85x45cm), I noticed the city inside the neck of the horse on the left, the dolphin over the eye of the horse on the right and the silhouette of the elephant at the bottom of the head of the horse on the right. This was totally unintentional and I believe it was not my hand that created the images.

Although I have not transformed nations yet - who knows, maybe one day - a lot of the prophecies I was given happened exactly word for word as the prophet said it would. We have since become very good friends.

Can you share some of your secret techniques please?

I always start my paintings with a thin water-based layer as complementary colour of the pallet I will be using for the piece. I then build the painting layer by layer, starting with a thin application and gradually going thicker. In my final layers, I will switch from brush to pallet knife and then finish it off by adding the final detail.

Technically it is important to get proportions and perspectives correct, but to me the look and feel of the painting is even more important. I create emotion by the use of brush strokes, the way the colours work together and the way the paint is applied to the canvas. I believe that without emotion a painting is a nice picture, but lifeless as a piece of art. Art needs to be able to awake something inside of the viewer. I guess that is the real meaning of the saying “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.

Preserving my art is very important and I try to make sure I am as professional as can be. I therefore cover all my paintings with a layer of good quality varnish to protect the piece and prevent yellowing. To care for it, it is then only necessary to wipe it off with a damp cloth.

When do you know that a painting is finished?

To me it is an awareness - once I am happy with how I am feeling about the artwork and I cannot spot any serious technical mistakes, I will call it a day. A painting should never be totally finished, I think a good painting should always leave something for the mind to complete.

What is success to you?

Success is the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment I get when completing a piece of art that I am proud of. And then, if someone is willing to part with their hard-earned cash to invest in my art, it gives a sense of value in what I do. It is a wonderful awareness of success and I like it very much!

How should art be marketed?

Every artist should register his own Domain name and at least have a personal website. Social media is a good way of getting your name out there and an online store is always an advantage.

I have my own website adriaanlotter.com . There is also the online art gallery lapalleteart.com on where I invite other artists who would like to sell their own art and also to get the opportunity to make more money along the way, to join and assist me. We have already done a great deal of work and the plan is to provide an international networking platform for artists to advertise, sell and deliver art globally, but also to access, sell and present online art classes worldwide. It also provides the opportunity to connect with other artists and to link up with art suppliers offering special discounts to members.

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