About the artist…

Kirstin Nolte (Kotzenberg) was born and raised in South Africa. She obtained a degree in enology and viticulture at the University of Stellenbosch in 1996 and has been making wine ever since. Kirstin and her husband  moved to California in August 1999.

 Her first taste of art was in high school, where she took 2 years of art as one of her subjects. Her love for painting and drawing was rekindled when she went back to South Africa in December of 2001 and decided to join her mother in taking an art lesson with Johan De Vries, a naïve artist who resided in Hermanus, South Africa. Her mother had already spent a few months with Johan and started painting and selling her own work. Kirstin also found his particular styles and methods inspiring and with his encouragement, started painting and selling her work in California. He has since sadly passed away. Another very well-known and successful artist in South Africa, known as Portchie, continues to inspire and encourage Kirstin with his bright and lively paintings.

 She is currently residing in San Jose, California,  where she has taken a temporary break from her primary job as winemaker in a Livermore winery to spend time with her 20 month old daughter and 5 month old son ... and, whenever she can, tries to find time to brighten up a piece of canvas…

She uses her nickname (Kiki), given to her when she was very young, to sign her paintings.

About Naïve art…

Naïve painting has a simplistic charm and humorous vitality that its sophisticated and traditional contemporaries fail to achieve, and it is created all over the world, by ordinary men and women from all walks of life.
It first attracted widespread public interest through the works of Henri Rousseau (1844-1910), and the American painter Grandma Moses (1860-1961), and this interest has now developed into an international phenomenon, fuelled by serious collectors willing to pay high prices.

Despite regional variations, naïve art is almost always highly colourful, uses strong, vibrant pigments, often straight from the tube. Perspective and realism are of lesser importance than packing as much action, vitality and fun into the picture as possible, because therein lies the human 'spirit' of the event, or the environment that is being painted.

Naïve artists are ordinary citizens, driven to paint. They draw their inspiration from the landscapes, people and architecture that they know from personal experience. They pay meticulous attention to detail, and are unashamed about dispensing with formalities in their work.

The results are paintings of immense lasting pleasure that can be returned to time and again with fresh eyes, for there is always something new to be found, lurking in a corner, or peering through a hedge somewhere.
The subject matter and geography of Naïve work is as varied as human activity, but there is a sincerity and whimsical joy that pervades each piece, making it universally acceptable, almost childlike in its honesty.There is no great struggle to be understood,or political issue to be aligned with in Naïve art. It simply stands in its own right as a lasting testimony to all that is healthy in ordinary folk, regardless of their colour, race or creed, and wherever they call home.