A spoonful of sugar

Featured image: The author (right) with Nanette Ranger, flanking a major piece at Creation Wines.

By Katherine Osler

The oft-quoted Chinese proverb ‘One picture is worth a thousand words’ reminds us that it is often easier to show than to tell.

Nanette Ranger, the renowned South African sculptor and owner of the Nanette Ranger Art Studio in Paarl, echoed this sentiment when I asked her to describe the intention behind her sculpting style. She explained that she absorbs the pain, hope, discomfort, chaos, beauty and hopelessness in the world, and then seeks to create something powerful and grounding — something meaningful that requires no lengthy explanation.

Her creative process is both a catharsis and a gift: a way of transforming emotion into tangible beauty which she generously shares with the world. While undeniably profound, Nanette’s art is also accessible and playful, which allows it to reach a wider audience.

Nanette’s work is on permanent exhibition at Creation Wines in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley near Hermanus and the Knus Karoo Kombuis in Paarl, and has been incorporated in ‘Sculptors on the Cliffs’, a permanent exhibition along a Hermanus cliff path forming part of the annual Hermanus FynArts Festival. Her work has been collected in South Africa as well as England, Europe and the United States.

This work greets visitors at the entrance to Creation Wines.

I recently had the privilege of sharing a meal with Nanette and her husband, Sean, at Creation Wines in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley. It was aimed at interviewing her for this article, but what unfolded was far more intimate. We laughed, sipped a chilled Creation Chardonnay, pondered big questions, and savoured every morsel of a sublime meal.

We connected as though we had known one another forever, in another lifetime. It was all about energy—and ours flowed effortlessly.

This also had a lot to do with being in a magical setting. Nanette and Creation Wines have formed a unique artistic partnership, providing multiple sensory experiences in a magnificent environment. The food, wine, art, views, and even the people who serve you all have one thing in common: they love what they do, and want to share that passion. Seeing Nanette’s sculptures exhibited in the restaurant and garden feels serendipitous, as though the works were created specifically for that space.

I was captivated by Nanette’s recurring sculptural theme: faces with exquisite features and hypnotic eyes, reflecting some of one’s own emotions. I wondered whether her intention was to explore trust, or perhaps to encourage us mortal beings to nurture a childlike engagement with nature and life. Her answer surprised me.

‘Tranquility’.

What she hoped to do, she said,was to lure in the viewer ‘with a spoonful of sugar’, and then to invite them to discover the layered, complex messages embedded within each piece.

She shared how the faces of her sculptures took the longest time to work on, and sometimes, once completed, she would break it down, throw the face away, and work on it again until it represented the exact intended emotion.

She also explained that the height, size and colour of the sculptures, and where they are placed, whether in an exhibition venue or home, would affect the mood and expression noticed by observers. For this reason, she climbs up and down while working on a sculpture to achieve a specific expression – yet viewers will always experience the work differently depending on their own stage of life, personal circumstances, socio-political background, and their mood on that particular day.

‘Sanctuary’.

Nanette’s work is rich in symbolism — of nature, mythology, the cosmos, metaphysical energy, feminine power, and the female form. She tells a beautiful story in which nature, animals, the universe and human beings are all connected.

There is something whimsical and playful about Nanette herself.  Her sea-blue eyes dance and sparkle when she speaks, and her sculptures feel like extensions of different facets of her own personality— perhaps even of those who feel drawn to her work.

‘Icarus’ – purchased by the author.

A woman is a powerful being, and in our time, being a woman is a profound gift. Women now have many ways in which to express themselves and process life events, always with the support of other women. We move through seasons, tides, moons, life stages and shifting phases, each offering something new. Nanette taps into this energy with authentic grace. Even when the underlying emotions are complex and painful, her message always circles back to what is real — to the natural rhythm of the earth.

After our feast had ended, and we had exhausted our word count for the day, we parted ways. I left with a sculpture I had admired since first seeing it on Nanette’s Instagram—a female interpretation of Icarus, son of Daedalus. I choose, however, to reinterpret the Greek myth differently. My message to her is this:

Use your wings and fly close to the sun, sweet girl. You will not melt.

Sculptures on a railing against the dramatic backdrop of the Hemel-en-Aarde valley.