More about Wessel Marais

He was born in 1939 in the Magaliesburg, but he grew up in Welverdient, near Potchefstroom. His father was the local postmaster who believed that quite apart from work, a man’s inner presence must express itself in some creative form. His childhood friend Simon introduced him to drawing with a stick in the sand.

On leaving school, Wessel’s main ambition was to be a pilot but he became a postmaster, just like his father, but his interest in painting led him to study commercial arts part-time. He took lessons after hours from Zakkie Eloff, the famous South African wildlife and landscape artist.  Soon Wessel began to draw inspiration from Erich Meyer’s landscapes and the whole range of the masters of French impressionism.  His work improved and found ready buyers within and out of South Africa.

His studies, landscapes, city scenes, flower studies, still lifes, Cape Coons pulsating with boisterousness and the joy of living, and children playing in gay abandon, have become sought-after collectors’ items throughout South Africa.  His personal preferences are to portray everyday scenes with an innate playful, unfettedness and poetic intuition.

Wessel Marais’ work has been extensively collected by private individuals and corporations alike, both within and without South Africa.  Although much of Wessel’s subject matter is South African, his style and manner of painting has a worldwide appeal.

After a long and fruitful life, Wessel Marais sadly passed away in April 2009.

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