Born in Magaliesberg in 1935, Wessel Marais is the son of Postmaster who grew up on a plot in Welverdient near Potchefstroom among the white, pink and crimson cosmos. Wessel says of his father, “My father was a kind of artist, a poet from whom I seem to have inherited my urge to create”. The artist’s earliest recollections of art are with a friend named Simon who introduced him to drawing with sticks in the sand, most of this drawing were of upside down trains.

Upon the completion of his schooling, Wessel recalls that art was not an economically sound career to pursue, nor was his ambition to become a pilot practical and achievable. Hence, he followed his father’s footsteps to the post office.

The post office with its rigid nine to five hours soon took its toil and bored the young man, and when the opportunity to study commercial art after hours arose, “life took on a new meaning”.

Soon after, Wessel left the post office and began working in a shop and painting after hours. He took lessons from Zakkie Eloff, learning how to do portraits in pastel an oil, and drew inspiration from Erich Meyer’s landscapes and the masters of French impressionism.

The artist recalls earlier paintings as muddled, and instruction on how to improve his budding talent came from the Italian painter Guiseppe Cattaruzza who owned a gallery in Pretoria and had sent for the artist upon encountering some of Wessel’s works.

Encouraged by his success, the family man who had settled in Pretoria exchanged his sheltered job for the life of a painter under the support of his wife Chrisine.

Soon, Wessel had his first exhibition in Potchefstroom, followed by others in Johannesburg, Cape Town and at the Schweickerdt Gallery in Pretoria. His studies: landscapes, city scenes, flower studies, still lives, 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.

Wessel believes that a skilled artist must be able to interpret any subject matter successfully ion canvas. His personal preferences are to portray everyday scenes with an innate playful unfetteredness and poetic intuition. His ability to portray the captivating play of light and shadowing vibrant colours is a gift which is highly appreciated by many of his admirers.