Sue Maas was born in 1949 in Mutare, Zimbabwe and graduated from the Bulawayo School of Art with a Commercial Art Diploma. She moved frequently with her husband between Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa, and Lesotho while raising her family and managing safari camps. During this time, she developed her interest in wildlife painting and built a reference library. In 1991, she established a textiles business in Cape Town transferring her wildlife images onto fabrics, which she ran successfully for nine years. Currently, Sue lives outside Stellenbosch and exhibits paintings of everyday women as well as wildlife at galleries around South Africa.

1. SUE MAAS
Born 1949 in Mutare, Zimbabwe
Sue Maas graduated from the Bulawayo School of Art with a Commercial Art Diploma.
In 1970 she married Frik Maas and the couple moved to a family farm in Mozambique which they
managed for two years until the border was closed with Zimbabwe.
Sue’s interest in wildlife painting began when she moved to Fothergill Island in Kariba and she began
to paint there. The couple have two children and they lived in Kariba for the next ten years,
managing the safari camp and having the unique experience of building Tiger Bay Safari Camp with
their partners.
During this time of raising children and managing the camp Sue had the privilege of being able to
view the game close up and build a suitable library of reference material for future use. Little time
was available to paint. However, when the couple moved back to the village in Kariba, Sue began to
paint in earnest, exhibiting regularly in Harare.
In 1990 the Maas family moved to Lesotho where Sue had her first solo exhibition and continued to
sell her work through the Johannesburg Sun Gallery and further joint and two person exhibitions in
Lesotho and South Africa.
In 1991 the Maas family moved to Cape Town, South Africa. Sue established her business
transferring the images of the wild life she loved so much onto textiles. For the next nine years she
and her sister concentrated on this venture.
In 1997 Frik returned to Zimbabwe to assist Sue’s brother on the family farm just outside Mutare
and eighteen months later Sue joined him there and they built their ‘dream home’ on the farm. Sue
continued to develop the textile business with a staff of two tailors and three female assistants. The
farm was taken in 2001. The family moved back to Cape Town. Sue continues with her textiles in a
little cottage the family rent outside Stellenbosch.
Sue recently started painting women going about their everyday lives and is now well known for
capturing these moments in exquisite detail in oils on canvas.
She currently exhibits in a number of galleries all over the country, including Absolute Art Gallery in
Zeerust, North-West.