Rowena Bush

This year marks the 90th birthday of one of Durban’s best-loved and most well known artists, Rowena Bush. Elizabeth Gordon Gallery in Florida Road will pay tribute to this remarkable lady with an exhibition of her paintings. (28 March to 4 April)


Meeting Rowena was a delightful experience. Still painting and a member of the Watercolour Society of South Africa, she shared generously her experiences over those 90 years.

Rowena was born in Ceylon in 1917. Her father was a tea planter and only at the age of 7 did she return with her family to England. For several years, a governess tutored her and she recalls learning numerous handcrafts. Only at the age of 10, did she first attend school. At the age of 16, she left school and attended Art School in Bristol. After three years of learning mainly drawing, she attended the London School of Interior design. What she learnt about architecture at this time, she found particularly useful. She worked in interior design in London for a year and then, during the depression, responded to an advert for a research job in Tanganyika. When war broke out a year later, she took up a teaching post in Kenya. Three years later, she left the school to get married and she and her husband moved back to Tanganyika. She recalls how the farmers provided food for the troops as they waited to leave for Ethiopia. They retired to farm in Kenya and then, eleven years later, in 1962, due to changes in education and a rise in violence, they relocated to Durban with their two sons.



Living in a flat in Durban and with her sons away at boarding school, Rowena began sketching in the Durban Bay area. She discovered a gallery on the Esplanade, where she began to exhibit. She also gave art lessons.

Rowena joined the NSA and attended portrait and life-drawing classes there on Saturday afternoons, where she met many well-known artists. She relates stories of traveling and painting with such people as Marj Bowen, Wendy Amm and Mary Stainbank.

Rowena is an honorary fellow of the watercolour society of South Africa; she prefers to paint from life and has undertaken numerous commissions to portray well-known scenes and buildings around KZN. Her paintings of the wild flowers of Tanganyika hang at Kew Gardens. Her paintings have been exhibited in East Africa, South Africa and abroad. We congratulate you on your 90th, Rowena.

“An awakening of the eyes”

There is no doubt that artists see things just a little differently. Betty Edwards in her book “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain,” describes how by perceiving things in a certain way anyone can improve their proficiency at drawing within a short space of time. It often surprises me that drawing is considered a secret revealed only to the talented few and yet from a young age it seems to come to children as naturally as breathing. It was Picasso that said, “ Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist when he grows up”.

The benefits of nurturing the artist within, however, are greater than at first imagined. I was amused when a friend commented after attending art lessons for just a few weeks that she was seeing things that she had never noticed before. Her wonderment at the world around her and her refreshing honesty highlighted the fact that we are often “out of tune” with our world. Drawing enhances our ability to see. It trains our eye to perceive deeply and accurately and enables us to enter a receptive state where we appreciate the play of light on form or the relation of one object to another. Few people say, “I want to attend art lessons to learn to see”, but students stand around afterwards reveling in the sunset, with a heightened sense of colour and beauty.

Henri Matisse wrote: “The effort to see things without distortion demands a kind of courage and this courage is essential to the artist who has to look at everything as though he were seeing it for the first time.”

An artist is one who wants to sit in the window seat, fascinated by the play of light and shadow on the landscape. Drawing can be a way of teaching the eye to see and as Leonardo da Vinci said, “The eye encompasses the beauty of the whole world.”

Leanna’s Gallery Café

If you’re an Art lover holidaying in the Ballito area or even a day visitor during the holidays, the chances are that you would be interested in seeing what the area has to offer. Tucked away in the centre of the main street in Umhlali, you will find Leanna’s Gallery Café – an excellent spot to meet a friend for a cup of coffee or a light lunch, while enjoying the variety of artwork on display.

Leanna and her husband started a small gallery and framing business some years ago and this has now expanded into a café, framing shop and gallery. Chatting to Leanna about the gallery, she said that her motto had always been “something for everyone” and she is confident that the business will continue to live up to that goal. At the back of the gallery, you will find a section that is very well stocked with art materials. Although the chances are that you will find what you are looking for there, Leanna hastens to add that she is happy to order on the customer’s behalf, should you need something that is not in stock. The selection of canvases on offer made me feel instantly inspired to paint. Leanna keeps stock of the Australian Art Spectrum pastels as well as a wide variety of paints and brushes.

Apart from the paintings, plates and ceramics on display, Leanna stocks a large selection of framed mirrors. Verdi, Leanna’s husband, does the framing on the premises himself and as such is often happy to help out with an urgent framing need.

Leanna is looking forward to receiving some new stock early in the New Year, so it might be a good time to plan to meet a friend at the Gallery Café for a cup of coffee. For more on Art www.withartinmind.co.za