My art journey
I was born on a farm outside Johannesburg and went to school in the countryside of KwaZulu Natal. Being in nature was integral to my life, as was daydreaming. Art was not offered as a subject at the high school I attended, but creative activity was never far away. When our class was preparing the massive wall paintings for the Matric Dance, a friend’s brother (an artist) suggested I consider studying art. Although at the time I did not take this suggestion seriously, in retrospect I can see that the urge to create has always been part of me. I expressed my creativity in personal journals, school projects, cooking, designing my home and even in the analysis of data and layout of reports for my environmental projects.
My particular yearning was to paint in watercolour – mainly because I love water – and my husband impetus to this idea one Christmas with a gift of a watercolour paper pad and some paints. These lay dormant for a few years. While working at the 2004 Olympic Bid Company, a colleague told me about an art teacher in Hout Bay where I lived called Jane Gray. I started regular painting classes with her in 1996.
Over the years I have been fortunate to have opportunities to grow and broaden my artistic practice and knowledge. Classes and workshops with Debbie Field and Elfriede Dreyer have been the mainstay of my ongoing learning as well as online courses through the St Ives School of Painting. I have also met and worked with many wonderful fellow artists. The creative journey is invigorating and fulfilling. Most of all, art is a means for me to express my feelings, thoughts, and love for nature – those things that are felt and for which there are no words. For me, art is about sharing the unseen, the unspoken, the non-verbal.
An early work, from 1999 titled “In the front garden”