Madeleine van Manen

Madeleine studied Fine Art Painting at the Port Elizabeth Technikon (now known as the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University) under well-known lecturer and artist Vivian van der Merwe. Upon leaving art school, Madeleine followed a career in the advertising and publishing industry for two decades, and also ran a small gallery before finally getting the opportunity to start working as a full time artist herself. She currently works from her home studio in Cape Town, doing mainly painting and experimental prints.

She uses her personal experiences as reference and tries to recreate the atmosphere of each experience in her work, rather than focussing on the exact details. Current recurring themes include landscapes, cityscapes and domestic situations. The latter sometimes include the use of animals as a symbolic reference, carrying a message that is sometimes dark and disturbing and at other times tongue in cheek.