Bridging Worlds Through Art: A South African Artist’s Exploration of Life and Beauty

Real life is far more exciting than we can ever imagine, only because we are limited in our imagination, and we tend not to see what is right there in front of us.

I have been interested in art and paintings ever since childhood. Born in Gauteng, South Africa and growing up in Durban, a coastal town, I have always had a keen interest in the world around me.

I enjoyed my school life, especially art and geography. In geography, I imagined travelling the world and revelled in discoving new places I wanted to visit in the magazines and pictures I collected. It was a dream of mine to go on a cruise liner. 

When I finished school, I studied to be a food technologist. During the course, we learnt to draw from a microscope. These drawings had to be very accurate and factual, but it was their line and form that intrigued me. After completing my studies, I went to work at a flavour house where I could use my creativity in the research and development of snack foods and flavourings. 

I then met and married my husband, Peter, and had three daughters. Marriage and raising children never dimmed my involvement with arts and craft projects but had little time for painting. We were an avid camping family and travelled to many places around South Africa and Namibia. Wherever I went, I would hone in on possible subject matter that would be painted one day. 

I had the privilege of going to Singapore in 2010 and was overwhelmed by the use of sculpture in the city. I was also introduced to the wonderful forms and structures of the new buildings and how they used lighting, plants and water features to enhance their environment.  I looked at the world through different eyes on my return home from Singapore and vowed I would return to the East.

I finally realised my cruise liner dreams in 2012 when the family went on a short cruise around the South African coast and in 2016 my husband and I went to Mozambique on a cruise liner. I did some snorkelling and loved the calm waters of the islands. In 2017 Peter and I went to Thailand for two weeks where we soaked up the sun, the sea and the culture around us. I met a deaf artist who painted t-shirts for a living and he inspired me to push on with my art. I also saw sculptured flower soaps and beautiful paper art that just blew me away.

I have always wanted to teach and after years of working with children of various ages, decided to further my studies in teaching. I graduated and started looking for a teaching post. I applied online and was eventually offered a position in Wendeng, China. Peter and I jumped at the opportunity as our children were all out of the house and standing on their own two feet. The eldest lives in Ireland, is married and has four children, the youngest au pairs for her. The middle daughter is still in South Africa. She has a daughter and runs an educational internet business.

We find China to be a fascinating and exciting place. We love the people and the culture as well as the variety of art and sculpture that we have come across so far. Sculptures in Weihai and Yantai are both beautiful and inspiring and the decorating of everyday items like electrical boxes and garbage bins in Rongchen and Yantai is just delightful. Season changes, waterways and gardens have also been a great source of inspiration. 

My travels and experiences all further fuelled my passion for painting and art. 

In recent years I have had the privilege of training under good teachers and I credit my improvements to their coaching. I focus on landscapes, seascapes, birds and animal paintings in acrylics, water colours and needlework.  All these disciplines have their own supporters but I want to bring them together in a mixed media form.

Since I come from South Africa and love the sea and the land, I want to show the people of China some of our bird-, sea-, plant- and wild-life, as well as the exciting topics I have discovered here. As mentioned, I choose my subjects from what I see around me. 

I paint in bright bold colours because I love colour but more importantly, Peter is colour-blind and as my favourite critic, can’t see the pale colours. To him they look like mild shades of grey. I like to use colour and texture and am particularly fond of line and form, but more than that I like pretty things. Things that bring joy and life. I have done a few still life paintings but prefer real life. 

I have experimented with making my own paper, using various thicknesses of paper for water colours, stencilling, printing, fabric art and sand art. I am currently working on silk embroidery over acrylic backgrounds.

In the field of archaeology, the idea is that you only excavate a small portion of the dig site so that the next generation can possibly do a better job, with more research behind them, better tools and methods. That is how I feel about art – what we do today, opens up doors to new ideas for the next generation.