ABOUT

I live in Pretoria and have been painting in watercolour, acrylic and oil for many years. 

 

I started drawing when I was four years old and did my first oil painting when I was nine years old. When my mother saw that I was interested in art, she sent me to an art school in the city centre of Pretoria, which I attended for two years. When I was about nine years old my mother bought me an oil painting set and an easel, which I still have to this day. I still have some of the tubes of oil paint from that set, but most are dry. I also have a self-portrait and a portrait of a red Indian that I painted just after I got the set, as well as one or two paintings I did a few years later.

 

I started painting acrylics at the age of 24 and with watercolour a few years later, while on Gough Island, a lonely island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean where I was stationed as part of a weather team. 

 

Upon my return from Gough Island, I was accepted as a member of the Pretoria Art Route. During that time, I also enrolled at the Open Window Art School. At that time open Window Art School was still in a house in Moreletta Park. I also attended oil painting classes under Johan Grobler, a well-known wildlife artist.

 

I studied journalism at the University of South Africa and did a higher diploma in Tertiary Education at the University of Pretoria. I worked as a sub-editor and reporter at the Transvaler newspaper for ten years. I also worked at several magazines such as Lantern, Salvo and Game & Hunt magazines as an editor. I also learned how to do graphic design and magazine layouts on the computer. I published my own magazine for 17 years. I wrote and published two books and helped others to publish their books. I am currently a full-time artist, graphic designer and life coach.