PIETER CRONJE

Artist, Traveller and Human Rights Lawyer

Pieter Cronjé is a lawyer who holds a Masters Degree in Human Rights Law. Worked for thirteen years in the South African Police Service where he started the Human Rights Unit after the first democratic elections in 1994. He also worked as a prosecutor, lawyer and was in the Military for more than two years where he worked as a military law officer. Since February 2001 he has been working as an Independent International Human Rights and training consultant where he was involved in training and development of training material in the field of Human Rights and Law Enforcement, Trafficking in Persons, Election Training, Community Policing, Human Rights and Business, Police Response to Violence against Women and Children and training of trainers focusing on the training of government officials including police, prison officials, prosecutors, security officers and trainers, in more than 66 countries including Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, South Pacific and Asia. Pieter is a self-taught painter and he started painting as a young boy. During his university studies and years of military training he started painting more extensively. He started studying History of Art during his military service. When he started working as a human rights lawyer he gradually stopped painting. After more than seventeen years of not painting he decided to take up the brush and started to paint again. As a Human Rights Lawyer he had the opportunity to travel to approximately 88 countries all over the world. He decided to make paintings of the places and people that he experienced and countries he worked in. He paints social commentary on relevant issues that impact on those people and places. Although he paints in his studio in South Africa he is also an avid painter on busses, airplanes and small hotels in crazy countries where he works and where people tend to commit serious human rights violations such as civil wars, human trafficking, migrant smuggling, forest and wildlife crimes and violence against women and children. These are all topics that inspire him to paint and provide social commentary on these issues. examples of my style and artistic methods within my current and past collections.