Collection: Willie Strydom

Born in Johannesburg in 1951, Willie Strydom loved art and painting from an early age. He would draw, sketch, and paint scenes from his life at primary school. He was convinced his art teacher didn't like him much. "I think it was because I was better than him. I always showed his mistakes to him, and he didn't appreciate that."

He studied Fine Art at the Pretoria Technikon but only started thinking of himself as an artist in his mid-40s after moving to the sub-tropical South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal. "After tech, I went to the army, worked at a bank, for the municipality, for a friend doing technical drawings, and for years doing kitchen cupboard installations."

Since selling seven paintings at his first exhibition at Johannesburg's Zoo Lake in 2000, Strydom's colourful interpretations of South African life have found their way into art galleries and private art collections nationwide and abroad.

Although mainly known for his colourful, expressive landscape art portraying the Highveld and Boland regions, Strydom also loves to portray the haphazard architecture of older suburbs like Cape Town's brightly coloured Bo-Kaap. He is also renowned for his beautiful and colourful vineyard paintings. Strydom's work has travelled to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA, Cyprus, the UK and many more.