"My art impacts my life daily as I wrote in the cover of my coffee table book “Derric Van Rensburg”: To have 40 years of one’s life represented in a beautiful book is probably something that most people would consider an incredible achievement and please don’t misunderstand me I certainly believe that it is an amazing achievement! Yet I find myself wondering and thinking back on how it all came about. Like every other person I have not lived my life in isolation. The various experiences that are written about in the book have formed me, the way I see life and fundamentally how I paint. For many of us what we do and who we are is two separate concepts but I have found that, being an artist these two concepts have become inexorably linked. Let me explain – when I am sitting in a restaurant drinking numerous cups of espresso (which I love) my mind searches for ways to remember this scene. I allow, where ever I find myself whether driving, talking to friends or listening to music to become part of my mind in order to put it onto canvas so that ultimately you may also come and live in my world. I do not paint because it is my work I paint because I “can do no other” to quote those famous words used by Martin Luther. My art is not only representative of who I am but of all who been in and out of my life – my parents, siblings, wife, friends, children, grandchildren and even those who challenged me and my art form. Over the years I have helped many aspiring artists to find their own way, some who have left school and some still in school. I believe my gift for art is to be used to help others as well as to enrich my own life."
