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A bit about my art

A few people have asked me about my own art background and so I thought I would share a bit about that today.

The honest truth is I have no formal training or background in art. Everything I have done in the artistic line has been self taught. If I’d lived in another time or country, perhaps I would have pursued a more artistic career as art and literature have always been a huge part of my life, but opportunity never knocked in those areas during my younger years. I never even considered writing or creating artworks as a possible job or career. I didn’t know ordinary people like me could become artists or writers. When I was young, my only knowledge of authors and artists were famous people like Dickens, the Brontes, or Monet. I knew about all these people because I was a precocious reader from an early age and I read both fiction and non-fiction. I read whatever I could lay my hands on and ‘read out’ both the school and the local libraries when I liked in the small town of George for two years when I was 10 and 11 years old. Luckily for me, my family moved often and I got to attend new schools with different libraries.

I had a wonderful grandmother, Granny Joan. She was a painter and she was also very good at baking, cooking, canning, making jam, and sewing. Granny Joan taught me all sorts of useful skills including embroidery and sewing. She encouraged me to use my imagination and we made paper dolls, doll houses from wooden crates, baby doll cribs from margarine tubs, and many other creative projects.

In January 2022, my husband was very ill and he was off work for three months recovering. During that time, I tried to find things to distract my youngest son from his anxiety about his father’s health. One of the advertisements I saw was for a charcoal workshop. Michael and I both attended and we both discovered a bit of a talent for drawing. After that, we started attending art classes fairly regularly and we both learned how to draw and how to shade with charcoal, pencils, and pastels.

Amsterdam Canal – my first acrylic painting

Two years ago, I decided I wanted to learn how to paint. I tried and my first painting was of a canal in Amsterdam. I painted this picture using one of my own photographs as a reference source. The reason I selected this picture to paint was because the water in the photograph completely fascinated me. I wanted to try and replicate the dark and compelling water using paint.

After completing this painting, I focused on painting my beloved Southern African animals for a long while. I painted an elephant, a leopard, a buffalo, and a hartebeest. I also painted a jacaranda tree and aloes in flower.

This is my Youtube video of this painting.

Fyrtorr – the lighthouse in Brighton, September 2025

Following a trip to the UK in June last year, I decided to paint my mother a picture of the new lighthouse (relatively speaking) at Brighton. My mother worked in Brighton for a few years as a young woman. I created this painting from one of my own photographs and once again it was the water that a fascinated me the most. I was also intrigued by the white chalk cliffs and I experimented using acrylic texture paste to get more texture for my cliffs. I was happy with the result.

If you are interested in seeing the detail of this painting, this is my Youtube video of it with close ups.

Motion, A Waterfall – my most recent acrylic painting – March 2026

I was pleased with the effect created by the acrylic texture paste and so I decided to undertake my most complicated and detailed painting to date, a waterfall in the Drakensberg Mountains. Once again, I used one of my own photographs as a reference.

I created the water in motion effect with the texture paste. This painting was a lot of effort because there was so much layering of texture paste and paint. I am happy with how its turned out so it was worth the effort.

If you are interested in seeing this painting in close up, you can watch my Youtube video here:

About Robbie Cheadle

South African author, photographer, and artist, Robbie Cheadle, has written and illustrated seventeen children’s books, illustrated a further three children’s books, written and illustrated four poetry books and written and illustrated one celebration of cake and fondant art book with recipes. Her work has also appeared in poetry and short story anthologies.

Robbie also has two novels and a collection of short stories published under the name of Roberta Eaton Cheadle and has horror, paranormal, and fantasy short stories featured in several anthologies under this name.

You can find Robbie Cheadle’s artwork, fondant and cake artwork, and all her books on her website here: https://www.robbiecheadle.co.za/

Social Media Links

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/robbiecheadle.bsky.social
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVyFo_OJLPqFa9ZhHnCfHUA
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15584446.Robbie_Cheadle
TSL Publications: https://tslbooks.uk/product-tag/robbie-cheadle/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Robbie-Cheadle/author/B01N9J62GQ
Unsplash profile: https://unsplash.com/@r_cheadle