Info: Frans Groenewald describes himself as an "analytical, serious person" but it's his quirky, fresh sense of humour you notice when you talk to him and look at his pictures. And this witty, tongue-in-cheek images of cats have brought his fame. Until two years ago he made his living illustrating magazines and children's books, doing cartoons from a newspaper and working as a graphic designer. But he felt he needed another outlet for his creativity. "I had lots of ideas in my mind and I was looking for a new way to express them. The essence of creativity is freedom and in painting I found the freedom to apply a part of mymind not often used in design. I started to experiment with fine art, I had read a book on "lateral thinking" by Edward de Bono and I decided to use my imagination to guide my style rather than painting exactly what I see." He decided to choose cats as a theme for his first series of paintings "Cats on canvas" which are a play on both words and images. For example his work 'Picatsso' is a reference to the well known artist of a similar name as well as the feline allusion! "Titles are an integral part of my painting. Often the title comes to mind first. I'll have a list of ideas relevant to cats and then I start painting." Frans works in acrylics on canvas and can complete up to three pictures in a day. When his unique paintings of cats started to appear in galleries and on exhibitions they were snapped up by the public. Surprisingly Frans himself is not particularly fond of cats, in fact he is allergic to them. "We recently got a very ladylike cat called Kietsie but usually my images are drawn from memory" His latest theme is 'Chefs on Canvas' From childhood Frans sketched, mainly cartoons, despite the fact that he had no contact with fine art. At Stellenbosch University he studied Graphic Design and did his honours in Photography. Frans and his wife Grace live in Somerset West with their two sons. He holds regular exhibitions, mainly in the Western Cape but his paintings can also be seen at Alice Art Gallery in Ruimsig.