BACKGROUND AND BEGINNINGS
Lené was born in Pretoria, South Africa in 1976. There she was raised and completed her primary, secondary and tertiary education. Her artistic gift was evident from an early age and she was encouraged to chose graphic design as a profession to combine her perfectionism with her expressive heart. She excelled as a student and was asked by the University to lecture part time after graduating in BA(FA) Information Desin. She lectured at the University of Pretoria for 2 years until she decided to persue her art full time. In her professional career she discovered quickly that graphic design offered her little room for personal creativity. It was also at this time that Lené met her husband and soul mate. He challenged her with the idea that to be truly happy, you have to be living out what you believe in. Some introspection caused her to take a bold plunge and leave the corporate environment in order to pursue what was valuable to her - following God, loving people, and hopefully touching a few hearts and lives along the way.
THE JOURNEY CONTINUES AND THE ART BEGINSIn search of a life of meaning, Lené began to privately express her heart on a canvas. Through unplanned and unexpected circumstances her fist painting was hung in a local gallery and soon sold. In her surprise she tried it again (just to see if it was a fluke) and when the second painting sold the same, she never looked back. Since those humble beginnings her work has been accepted into a number of well regarded galleries around South Africa and she has steadily eased her way into the ranks of recognized talents.
DOORS THAT OPENED ALONG THE WAYIn 2001 Nataniël (a South African performing artist) commissioned her to paint an angel for his best of CD “Will He Weep”. More recently she was invited, with a selection of South Africa’s top artists and international celebrities, to participate in a charity auction. Some of the personalities involved were Diana Ross, Katie Melua, Westlife, Aretha Franklin, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player. These were very enjoyable projects but the opportunity closest to Lené’s heart has been working with Mr. Nelson Mandela on his, “Unity Series”. She was given this honour along with a number of the word’s best artists, all challenged with bringing the incredible story of Mr. Mandela’s journey to life.
ANOTHER LEGENDLené participated in another interesting international exhibition in September of 2006. This was the largest art collaboration in history between artists of South Africa and India. It marked the 100th centenary of the peaceful resistance movement of Mr Gandhi. Although Lené holds contrasting religious views to that of Mr Gandhi, the collaboration was based on parallels in their philosophical views and she greatly respects this legend for the strenth of his moral convictions and absolute intolerance of compromise.
WHAT'S IN STORE FOR TOMORROW?2008 promises to be a year of great new leaps forward in Lené's art. Besides her sudden growth in artistic maturity during 2007, her works are now beginning to take on a character all their own. The latests works are large and bold and seem to capture even more emotion than her earlier works were characteristic of. She is pushing new boundaries with 3 dimentional paintings and has also just launched her first official limited edition print. She will be getting the year off to a bang with a solo exhibition in early March which will unveil all she's been up to for the last months. Send us an e-mail and we'll be sure to add you to the guest list!
