At 17, Sasha Hartslief came to Cape Town to study English and Philosophy at UCT. Passionate about drawing from an early age, she is largely self-taught, closely observing other artists and avidly reading up on technique. She had always been passionate about drawing, but the desire to become an artist only crystallised into a decision in 1995, when she enrolled at Cape College under the tutelage of Elizabeth Gunter. Gunter specialised in classical drawing and introduced Hartslief to the textbook ´The Natural Way to Draw´ by Kimon Nicolaides, a Greek art teacher and master of drawing who devoted his life to documenting exercises that facilitate the shift in perception required to accurately represent an objective form. During her studies Hartslief devoted as much as 5 hours a day to his exercises. She would draw at every possible opportunity... and pasted a quotation from Nicolaides above her easel to remind herself: “If I were asked what one thing more than any other would teach a student how to draw, I should answer: Drawing – incessantly, furiously, painstakingly drawing.” .... "I defer to the classical Masters for inspiration," says Hartslief. Like the 19th Century French Impressionists, she uses brushstroke to evoke the transience of light, colour and movement. And like her Renaissance and Impressionist forebears, she employs everyday visual devices to explore the way in which atmospheric light and tonal modulations inform a surface, and to evoke environments and atmospheres fraught with symbolic subtexts.Her subjects are often viewed from a philosophical, deeply personal perspective, resulting in striking works that are emotionally charged, pensive in mood and considered in composition. Since 1999, Hartslief has exhibited regularly at the Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town... She continues to attract a broad collector base from around the world. http://www.circagallerylondon.com/artist/SASHA_HARTSLIEF/biography/ undefined

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