THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SIDE OF ART At the age of fifteen Peter had an epiphany – complete with lights and the whole Road-to- Damascus special-effects scenario . The revelation was that he was meant to paint . But his teachers and his parents told him he still had to do maths because , as he recalls their telling him , “ if you don ’ t do maths , you can ’ t go to varsity and do a decent degree , and get a decent job . You ’ ll end up in a ditch with flies in your orifices .”
Well , he gave up maths , but he did go to university ( to study art , but not for long enough to actually graduate ). And then he took the most classic of gap years . For his twenty-first birthday he asked his parents for one year at home , with board and lodging and no pressure . For that year he wrote and gardened , and worked out what he wanted to do . Since then he ’ s been painting , and he ’ s never had a “ real ” job . But who needs a “ real ” job if you can make a living from doing the one thing you do better than anything else , and that you love doing ? Actually , it ’ s surprising he has managed to do so because , while he is a phenomenally talented artist , he doesn ’ t have much business sense , and he ’ s far from the classic , driven entrepreneur .
But his wife , Ciska , does have an entrepreneurial bent . So she ’ s given up midwifery and started marketing signed , limited-edition , high-definition , archival-quality giclée prints of Peter ’ s paintings . The giclée process almost manages to reproduce that incredible quality of light the glazing gives the paintings , but at a fraction of the cost of an original . So check out www . petervanstratenprints . co . za , or browse www . petervanstraten . co . za to see a bigger range , including some recent work . Even better , you can view some originals in selected Cape Town galleries . At the moment Peter has works in Everard Read and The Cape Gallery in the city , Grande Provence Gallery and Is Art in Franschhoek , and Agapanthus and Artvark galleries in Kalk Bay .
In the words of the John Lennon “ Surrealism had a great effect on me because then I realised that the imagery in my mind wasn ’ t insanity . Surrealism to me is reality .”
Thirst Untouchable Love