Of Local Artists, the 2010 World Cup, & Serendipitous Encounters

Lucille of Ivydene passed along some information about a local artist, Lesley Charnock, who has a studio in Newlands at Montebello Design Centre, just off Newlands Avenue and within minutes of many accommodation providers in the southern suburbs of Cape Town.

Lesley Charnock has painted a number of pieces in tribute to workers who are building the new Cape Town Stadium in Green Point, which will be used for the 2010 FIFA World Cup and which I have taken the liberty to display on this blog. She says this about her work:

Our home is close to the site of the 2010 Stadium in Green Point and I am surrounded by the excitement and activity of the construction workers, road diggers and cable layers. Driving across Cape Town to my studio every day I see street sweepers, the ‘The Big Issue’ vendors and the car guards. I find these vibrant groups of men and women at work to be wonderful subjects to paint...

I have empathy for the construction worker’s quest to realise their deadlines. The Stadium will soon be complete and the workers will move on. Their contribution will be a memory that I have sought to record in some of these paintings, a part of the progression towards this momentous event planned in 2010.

Lesley's art can be found at her studio in Newlands at the Montebello Design Centre. Her work will also be appearing at The Cape Gallery on Church Street in Cape Town throughout most of November 2009.

Mel's Place owner Mel, who knows Lesley personally, also commented on Lesley's work: "She is the BEST example of self marketing I know! Her experience and skill has soared and I really do admire her. She is also a very chatty, friendly person and her gallery is well worth a visit."

It is interesting too how people meet each other in the accommodation business in Cape Town, South Africa, and how such chance meetings can change the course of people's lives. Trish of Paterson House describes how she met Lesley:

I met Lesley when she arrived on the doorstep of Paterson House asking if I had any accommodation for her. It turned out that she was looking not for a bed, but for a space to paint and store her canvases while she was between houses.

She rented my pottery studio for a few months and we became friends. Without realizing it she gave me, through her own zest, positive energy and work ethic, the idea to expand my business.

I decided to build a studio cottage in the very large Paterson House garden, in a space where a vine and apple tree were growing …. and so was born AppleVine Cottage. Her studio is a delight, as is she, and the whole ambiance of Montebello lends itself to creative thoughts.