Meet Fine-Art Artist Sue Maas

Sue was born in 1949 in Mutare, Zimbabwe, the second of eight children. She spent much of her early years on the family farm, exploring the bush, collecting anything from wonderfully coloured spiders to brilliantly decorated butterflies, along with anything strange and wonderful that captured her attention.

People have often asked her where she gets her inspiration. “It’s in my blood!" replies Sue. Born to parents who were both creative, she emulated this trait at an early age. Her mother was an accomplished artist and sculptor, and her father an inventive farmer with an insatiable appetite for the outdoors ‒ especially camping and fishing.

At around nine years old (supposedly ‘mature’ enough!) they were granted the great privilege of accompanying dad on the annual get-away, a hunting/fishing trip into Mozambique to a camp set up on the banks of a river. A wonderful week followed – fishing, swimming, hunting for the pot, exploring and discovering new places along the river banks. That was when Sue’s desire to draw and paint as well as her great love for the bush was born!

After completing her schooling, Sue enrolled at the Bulawayo Art College where she completed a three-year diploma as a commercial artist (now referred to as a graphic artist). When she left art school, she married the love of her life, Frik Maas, with whom she had been dating since she was 16. They started their lifelong adventure together in neighbouring Mozambique on the farm where her father had grown up. They were blessed with two children and, eventually, three grandchildren.

Sue was able to pursue her love for creating and painting both as a graphic artist, a textile designer producing hand-painted work and finally a full-time wildlife artist. She and her husband spent most of their 47 years of married life in the safari business or farming in Zimbabwe and working in remote areas. They lived and worked in Zimbabwe and Mozambique and also in Lesotho and South Africa, moving more times than she cared to remember. But, in each place, she was blessed with amazing experiences. As she notes, "I could write a book about our adventures!" Sadly, her beloved husband passed away in 2016 whilst they were living in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape. She presently resides in beautiful Betty’s Bay, a small town nestled between the mountains and the ocean of the Western Cape of South Africa.

Sue is very aware that her real inspiration comes from her Maker, through Whom all things were made and from Whom she draws all her direction and guidance. Her love for colours, shapes, textures, moods and atmospheres is gleaned from the rich resources of African life in all its amazing and wonderful diversity.

"I try to capture just a small amount of the beauty I see around me on the canvases I paint. And I hope to be able to share that with viewers of my work," says Sue. She wants to help people notice and appreciate nature while also teaching them why it's important to protect all living things. This means taking care of the environment in a responsible way and being tolerant of things that are different.

She firmly believes that,

"Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men" (John 1: 3, 4)