Ian Hertslet

Ian Hertslet first discovered his interest in art and music when he attended primary school in Johannesburg. His mother was an artist (a student at The Royal Academy of Art) and it was her creativity and love of nature, music and dance that inspired him. He has worked for most of the big advertising agencies in the country – involved in TV storyboards and illustrations, working with colour and composition of every description. This gave him invaluable experience and taught him to work long hours under pressure. He realized that he needed time to pursue his career as a South African artist and so left the corporate world of advertising and began freelancing and painting landscape art. Ian’s varied style and thorough understanding of the way in which media can be mixed, gives an abstract expressionist style to his work. Ian Hertslet has been painting professionally since 1986 and has exhibited his work at many of the major galleries throughout the country. Many of Ian’s South African landscape artworks hang in financial institutions, the largest being at Unibank’s head office in Rivonia, with many more having made their way to distant shores.