Miriam Stern

South Africa

Born 1939

I was born on 3 April, 1939, in Johannesburg, and by age 9, I was already passionate about art. I remember how several classmates lined up at my desk to do their nature study drawings for them.

My art education started at the Johannesburg Technical College, where I graduated with a Diploma in Commercial Art (1958). I continued my studies at The Central School of Art in London, in 1961, where I focused on sculpture, and attended WITS Art School in 1964. In 1979 I attended BANFF School of Art, Canada, where I studied the history and methodology of ancient Japanese hand-weaving and dyeing (1979). Twenty years later, I completed a Degree in Fine Art at UNISA (1999).

Since then, I have also attended courses in Botanical Art with Jenny Philips, an internationally renowned botanical artist, Katy Lee, Sarah Simblet and Siriol Sherlock. I have more than 20 years’ experience working, exhibiting and teaching art.