About the artist

The historic town of Barberton, in the beautiful Makhonjwa Mountain Land, now a World Heritage Site, has a special place in the heart of well-known landscape artist, Gerrit Pitout.

Gerrit was born on the 2nd January 1953 in Klerksdorp and matriculated in Barberton. He studied at the Teachers Training College of Pretoria, and with further study at the University of South Africa he gained his honours in art history.

Gerrit also obtained his FPSSA Fellowship in photography and gained several National and International acceptances.

Gerrit’s career as professional artist span close to 50 years as he held his first solo exhibition at the young age of 17 years. He has since then held exhibitions in America, Israel and all over South Africa. The artist has had the privilege to exhibit with great artists like Zakkie Eloff, Dino Paravano, Mel Brigg, Lee Voight and many other.

Artist’s who had a great influence on his work was Pierneef, Gregoire Boonzaier and Peter Wenning.

Gerrit became known through his distinctive handling of water colour, as well as his oil paintings of Sossusvlei in the Namib. His oil paintings are strong, with the use of strong lines and earthy colours. Because the artist regularly visit the bushveld, Namib, Ethosha and the Kalahari, his work highlights this fast knowledge of the veld especially the desert. Gerrit depicts the desert either at dawn or sundown with strong contrasting colours. He strongly believes in the fact that you can’t paint something that you have no knowledge about. When he creates an artwork he captures depth, atmosphere and balance.

Gerrit’s work is different, fresh, clean and with a lot of impact, boredom never features.  he is known for painting Acacia trees with powerful skies and foregrounds