Top class artist

Charles van Sandwyk was born in Johannesburg in 1966. As a child, he illustrated the scenes and characters he imagined while reading J.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. In 1977 he emigrated with his family to Deep Cove near Vancouver. By the early 1980s, he was selling his drawings and watercolours. At 16, he held his first public art show in Deep Cove. In 1986 he travelled to the South Pacific where he fell in love with the Fiji Islands. That year he also won an Alcan award for his limited edition book A Selection of Neighbourly Birds. His watercolours, etchings and books are popular across North America and Europe. The National Library of Canada has maintained archives of his work since 1986. His book Wee Folk won Juror's Choice award at the 1994 Seattle Book Fair. Charles divides his time between Deep Cove and Fiji. During the Canadian winter he paints and writes in Fiji. The 30-something artist often sells his framed watercolors sell for as much as $3,900.