Ina van Schalkwyk was born in Vereeniging in 1945 and moved to Pretoria in her teens. There she grew up in a loving and supportive home, which laid the foundation for the extremely creative, passionate and ambitious artist she is today.

Her talents were discovered at a very young age and through her high school and early twenties, she tried various art forms, until she discovered oil painting, which was to become her passion. She hungered for knowledge and spent day after day studying masters and experimenting and developing her unique style.

Ina took the first real steps to fulfil her destiny when she started giving art classes in 1982. She also started doing portraiture commissions and her talent was beginning to be noticed in South African art circles.

While still painting and sharing her knowledge through her art classes, she decided to start a carpet weaving factory. With a group of rural women from the Tzaneen area, she successfully ran the factory and produced unique carpets from karakul wool, all adorned with her designs.

She continued vigorously with her painting and in 1985 she held a Wildlife exhibition with a total of 86 paintings on show. The interest in her work was overwhelming and the majority of the works were sold within the first few days. An extremely positive response from the press created an even bigger demand for her work.

Ina is a national tour de force in the South African artists guild. Her name is mentioned along with the likes of Claerhout, Robert Domijan, Christian Nice, Gabriel de Jongh, Lienkie Lombard, Johan Smith, Chris Tugwell and Adriaan Boshoff.

Ina now lives on a farm in George’s Valley, about fifteen kilometres outside Tzaneen. This is where the natural beauty of her surroundings inspires her to create paintings where the scenery is awash with colour and the objects are bathed in radiant light.

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