Biography
Sally Whines was born in Johannesburg and knew from a very young age that her talent for art was going to be the focus of her career. She scooped up both art and academic prizes throughout school and matriculated with the top scholar prize in 1996. She decided to follow a path to become a professional illustrator and graphic designer and attained a diploma in Graphic Design with distinction through the Technikon of the Witwatersrand in 1996. She was hired as a graphic designer at Heinemann Publishers where she worked, for a happy five years, learning computer skills and being given creative freedom to create marketing materials and covers for educational books.
Her freelance career began with in 2002, and for the past 19 years she has worked from her beautiful home and studio in Melville. Although she enjoys being a commercial artist, she loves to express herself more through personal fine arts: “The diversity of what I get to do has always thrilled me, but painting and sculpting my own creations has been a flame that has burned brighter and brighter over the years.” She began with attending Figures and Forms drawing sessions at a local recreation centre. She participated in group exhibitions for many years through the Rotary club at Hyde Park Corner where she sold many artworks. She then started painting friend’s portraits in oils and hosting home exhibitions which did extraordinarily well – selling over 150 works over a few years. This lead her to the idea to organise a Melville art ramble, with a map to open studios around the greater Melville area, which was very well attended.
Her work has matured over the years as she has found her personal expression – layering textures and emotional experiences and building her narrative into the artworks. She has hosted workshops with other artists to share the inspiration of this process and regularly has artists creating in her studio with her. In recent years she has been very involved in her graphic design role, facilitating various projects, but now the time has come to return to the fine art space and exhibit once more. She is thrilled to join the Artyli family for this next chapter of her adventure.
