Project Art Calendar 2022

I have recently started painting again after a fifteen-ish year break. My initial formal art exposure was during my high school curriculum. I then went on to study Jewellery Design and Manufacturing at Ruth Prowse School of Art.

During this time I became involved with puppetry, building small puppets, to 3m tall puppets, whilst being part of eMzantsi Carnival. At this time along with being part of eMzantsi’s core float building/decor team, I was also a member of Cape Town Carnival’s float building/fabrication and costume department.

In addition I have been part of an intercultural schools program running art projects at schools based in previously disadvantaged communities, working with kids and adults, and promoting art from recycling. During this time I hosted numerous creative facilitation workshops and facilitated upcycle workshops in the Northern Cape and abroad.

I also love the theatre and have been privileged enough to work backstage and as head of the costume department for an international production.

Since lockdown (Covid19) in 2020, I have started painting and exploring my personal creativity again. I have travelled six of the seven continents of the world, built a beautiful house from scratch; and all of this after the doctors told my parents I would not live past the age of seven years old.

Life has been an interesting journey, and I look forward to many more adventures.

Thank you for the opportunity to share my art with you.

I have always enjoyed expressing myself though arts and crafts. I studied Art and Textile Design through the High School that I attended in the Western Cape. After finishing school I started my own business in the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, in the Craft Market, where I designed and sold hand painted fabrics and homeware to local and international clients. At that time I also took on commissions for restaurants, curio shops and interior decorators in and around the Western Cape and Garden Route of South Africa.

Some of my most popular fabric designs included guinea fowl, elephants, florals, and various themes focusing on the natural beauty around the Western Cape and South Africa.

After my daughter was born, I focused on my family (which now includes two daughters). I have extended my creative path to social media management, and often work alongside designers from various locations around the world, from printers to clothing manufacturers, as a Virtual Assistant. I am always looking for a new craft medium or project to enjoy in my spare time. I take inspiration from the flora and fauna from the Western Cape and try to express the life and character of these through my art.

I think I was born with a pencil in my hand. For as long as I can remember I have been drawing. As a child, I drew on anything I could find and used to save all my pocket money just to buy pencils and paper.

I studied art at school and later attended evening classes for figure drawing at the Cape Technical College in Cape Town whilst studying for my secretarial diploma. In 1999 I enrolled with INTEC College for their Recreational Art Course. I received my Diploma in January 2003. I have studied under renowned artists Louis Audie, and Annette de la Porte and have participated in many exhibitions and festivals over the years.

A number of my paintings hang in homes around the world and my originals can be found in the USA, Denmark, and Japan.

I work in most mediums including watercolour (my first love), pastels, oils and acrylics. However, my lifelong affair with pencils is ongoing. I will never stop sketching with them. There is nothing nicer than using good quality pencils and paper.

Find more of my art on the South African Artists’ Website.

I’m a dabbler. A drifter. Multi-faceted chameleon. A Jacqueline of all trades and a mistress of none (but I prefer the second half of that quote – “though oftentimes better than master (mistress) of one”).

Some of these aspects of myself have been the bane of my existence but I am learning to work with them and just keep going. Resistance is futile!

I find that art helps with this. When I’m in art-making mode my mind is most at peace. I can “just be” and enjoy the present. And be surprised with at least an interesting something-or-other at the end of it.

While letting myself “just be”, I allow the art to “just be” too rather than having a specific idea in mind before I set out. I enjoy allowing the process to reveal where I should be going and just get lost in creating with no expectations.

Sometimes I am more pleased than other times with the results, but as one of my favourite artists, Danny Gregory, once said – “the drawing turned out to just be the ticket to the experience… I could just turn the page when I was done and leave the drawing behind like an old banana peel.”

And that, my friends is my life. A series of experiments resulting in countless old, discarded banana peels!

May you enjoy the ones in this calendar!

Drawing and other forms of art have always been a passion of mine. Some of my best childhood memories are of when I was drawing.

Apart from a high school education, of which art was my favourite subject, I am self-taught. Colour and pattern really speak to me and nature has a strong influence in my artworks. 

In early 2019, I started a small  company, Clementine Creations. My strengths lie in drawing, but I dabble in watercolour, oil pastel and acrylic. I have done a few commissions and am always open to collaborating on a custom piece.

I don’t think I need too much of an introduction to the readers of this blog.

Many of my family members (from both sides of the tree) are talented when it comes to art and music. I am always in awe of what my relatives can produce, from photo-realistic drawings, bright and colourful acrylic paintings, to musical competence on the violin, flute, trombone, piano, and other musical instruments. This has been both a blessing and a curse, as on one hand I know I must have some talent somewhere in me too, but on the other hand I have to resist the urge to compare myself to my talented family.

I did attend various child-orientated art lessons when I was younger, which I very much enjoyed. However, my high school years were more geared towards the sciences due to my circumstances at the time.

Over the last few years, I haven’t had too much opportunity to develop my own talents in regards to art or music, but am working on changing that.

It’s never too late, right?