ANN CLOETE

 

Ann lives with her husband Neil in Cape Town, South Africa. Neil is a keen amateur photographer and the couple

enjoy going for long drives, over weekends, and exploring the beautiful Cape countryside together. Photographs

taken on these trips are often the inspiration for Ann's paintings.

 

After matriculating in 1969, Ann studied Piano at Rhodes University, in Grahamstown. This equipped her to become a

teacher and she spent the next twenty-five years working in a number of schools in South Africa. In her final

teaching position, she served as Head of Music at Clarendon Primary School, in East London, and exercised a lively

creative streak by composing and arranging music for the school’s Marimba Bands and Choirs. In 1998, Clarendon

Primary's Music Department was featured on national television, in the programme TAKE 5.

 

Although drawn to the visual arts, Ann had little time for anything outside teaching until, in September 2001,

Neil's job required a move to Cape Town. Initially, the city with its dense, fast-moving traffic was intimidating -

but this was soon forgotten as she succumbed to the allure of new opportunities. In 2004, she became a student of

renowned pianist John Antoniadis and then, on a whim, also enrolled for Art lessons with Zaria de Villiers.

 

Things progressed in an entirely unexpected way, after this. Painting proved to be something as natural to her as

falling off a log and, inspired by a truly gifted teacher, she produced a flood of pictures. Animal portraits and

buoyant seascapes flowed forth and soon it became evident that what had started out as an adventure had blossomed

into something with huge significance. By the year 2005, the new activity was overshadowing everything else and,

seized with the idea of becoming a professional artist, Ann set up a website and participated in a number of local

exhibitions

 

The following year, she presented an exhibition at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and was invited by the

Saatchi Gallery in London to list her works on their website. How exciting it was to be noticed! She sold a number

of paintings and then, in December 2006, received an e-mail from the organizers of the Florence Biennale inviting

her to participate in the 2007 exhibition. She accepted the invitation and she and Neil spent an exciting three

weeks in Europe. (See also exhibitions)

 

Upon her return, she undertook a commission of fifteen artworks, for the Zandilbela Guest House, in Willowmore,

South Africa.

Thoughts on art

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