A Directory of Southern African Contemporary Art Practices (Editor: Jean Campbell), 1999:

Paul Blomkamp

Paul Blomkamp was born in Johannesburg in 1949. At the age of 19 he was awarded a commission for one the (then) biggest stained glass windows in the world. The following 20 years saw a spate of large modern windows designed and executed for churches, corporations and homes.

The influence of his stained glass work on his paintings is strong. His paintings seem to transmit rather than reflect light. They have a transparency and clarity and sharpness akin to glass, and often appear to be made of coloured light rather than paint. Blomkamp's work deals with the anatomy of energy. He is preoccupied with energy, what it is, what it looks like, because of an illness that left him without energy of his own for many years.

Now his painting are celebrations of energized lines… shapes and spaces that throb and glow with pure strong colour… existing solely for ways to illuminate the dark and unknown. His reason for painting is to make the connection… the connection with that subconscious passion and energy that sustains us and moves us as surely as the wind through a field of wheat. His relationship with colour and energized line is an attempt to confront eh subconscious… to access, to expose… to bring into the light that mystery, that primal force, that intelligence that may give us clues… affirmations… that existence on our little planet spinning in this perplexing Cosmos is worthwhile and meaningful after all.

Major commissions include:
Stained glass windows:

St. Stithians College Chapel
Civic Centre Methodist Church, Johannesburg
State Theatre, Pretoria
ABSA Bank, Microwave Tower, Hillbrow
Greek Orthodox Church, Johannesburg
Rosebank Union Church, Johannesburg

Paintings:

Telkom Headquarters, Pretoria
Germiston Civic Centre (mixed media)

Exhibitions:

Goodman Gallery 1986, 1989, 1992