An introduction to me and my journey with art and learning new artistic skills

Here in the beautiful Somerset West about 58 km (36 miles) from the lovely mother city Cape Town there is more than enough inspiration for an artist. Surrounded by the magnificent Hottentot Holland Mountain range the village of Somerset West lies in a valley (commonly known as the Basin) which slopes down to False Bay. You can find the quaint little villages of Strand and Gordon’s Bay on the shores of the bay. There you have a 360 degree view of the mountains as well as the sea. On a clear day you can see Table Mountain in the distance!

This is where I raised my children and, after a few years of living in Cape Town, decided to settle here once again. Although we are close to the city and connected by the N2 highway, everything we need is here and cannot ask for more. We have a lovely mall with a movie theatre, small shopping centers and fabulous restaurants There is also a local playhouse theatre, as well as many small businesses and specialty stores. There are also galleries and thrift shops and beautiful parks to walk in. Part of the mountain range has the Helderberg Nature Reserve with a darling little restaurant and museum. Then there is also the Crystal Pools hiking trail.

We also have the benefit of being surrounded by the famous Cape Wine farms where one can experience not only wine tasting but also fabulous restaurants as well as hosted craft markets. Besides that we also boast a small zoo called ‘Monkey Town’ where one can experience not only monkeys, but also chimpanzees and various other primates. There is also a restaurant, children’s play and Water Park as well as a snake park.

Around every corner is something to do or experience and even after living here for nine years I still haven’t been to or seen everything. What I love about living here is that it offers a more relaxed way of living yet having the conveniences of what a city can offer.

It is here where I started to pay more attention to doing what I love. Art. I have more time now to dedicate a larger portion of my day on my art and also to experiment and perfect mediums other than the oil paints I have been used to.

Many years ago I was retrenched from my job and in finding a way to make extra money I started painting again. I also thought that it was a good idea to learn a new skill every year. So I tried everything: sculpting, pottery, stained glass work and silversmithing. I arrived at a fair level of skill in all these modalities, but I still loved painting more. Reaching out to a small gallery in the tiny village of Philadelphia, I frequently submitted paintings for them to sell.

That was when I was commissioned by an author who bought one of my paintings and asked me to do a series of period paintings for a book he was writing. Anyone interested in the history of Cape Town can check out the book here: https://ianknightzulugallery.com/products/the-battle-for-the-cape-1778-1806-by-ian-van-oordt.

In the end I submitted around 22 paintings and drawings, however due to the size of some of the paintings, the commission stretched over 5 years. It was towards the end of the commission that I became ill and was bed-ridden for a few weeks.

Now you can’t paint in bed, but you can draw. And this is what I did. I collected all my drawing equipment and decided that, since my drawing skills weren’t as good as they should be, I should start practicing and followed a course in drawing. This led me to trying charcoal and graphite, and, even though I had drawn in these mediums before, found that I was improving by leaps and bounds. Then I discovered other mediums I had never thought I’d be interested in.

It happened when I was bored one day, didn’t feel like drawing but needed to keep my hands busy. I pulled out a colouring book I had bought some years ago. I still had some old coloured pencils and started colouring in. However, I wasn’t satisfied with what I was doing and decided to browse the Internet for inspiration. I learned that many artists were actually using coloured pencils to create beautiful paintings. I was amazed to find that it was just another way to use pigment and I had never considered that. I had always thought that a painting worth doing was done in oils. So I tried my hand at using coloured pencils in another way. However, once I was well enough to sit in front of the easel again, I had another two small paintings to complete the commission and didn’t get to the coloured pencils again for a while.

It was around that time that we sold our house and moved. It was an exciting move since we were going to have more space and my studio would be bigger. After everything was done, I got down to practicing with the coloured pencils again. It excited me that I could use my improved drawing skills as well as the colour I loved using to create unique portraits of my pets and family.

Not long after that I was asked to do a commission for a family of cats and was given the choice of medium to do them in. That was when I decided to do them in coloured pencils and I absolutely loved doing it. But it was also about this time that I discovered the joy of working with pastels and pastel pencils. I jumped on the chance to do one of the portraits of the cats in pastels and the owner loved it so much she bought it as well!

Then… of course, I had to try my hand at yet another medium – watercolours! Oh dear, the bane of my life, having tried it before and failing miserably, I decided I was going to practice until I mastered it. And so I did – I practiced and practiced, making more mistakes than progress, but eventually I found my style and settled on it. Now I love doing watercolours as well, but still need a lot of practice before I will attempt anything commercial.

So it was about this time that I decided to build up my portfolio of drawings and paintings. It is my passion to sit at my easel and I can do it all day without a break if I don’t have chores or other things to attend to.  My only regret is that I did not start doing this sooner in life. Yes, I have been painting and drawing all my life, but never with the zeal and passion I have for it now in my later years. And yes, one is never too old to start something new, but with the amount of things I still want and need to do I sometimes feel there isn’t enough time in the day to do it.

Meanwhile, I also have my constant studio companion, Nicci. She is a cross-breed with some border collie in her; loves to lie under my desk at my feet and the two of us take our walks in the neighbourhood or the wonderful Radloff Dog Park just around the corner.

I love dogs and have always had one or two and most of them have featured either in paintings or drawings, and my previous little pooch, Snippy, has been the inspiration for trying pastels for the first time.

So there you have it – my late-in-life journey to reinventing myself as an artist