Paws, paint and a second chance - TimesLIVE
Unwanted paintings are getting a second chance to be proudly displayed in Noordhoek, Cape Town, thanks to splashes of colour, creativity and plenty of animal charm.
The transformation of forgotten artworks gathering dust on the shelves of Tears Animal Rescue charity shops has blossomed into the annual RePAWposed Tears Art Exhibition and Auction.
This year’s fourth edition, held recently at Noordhoek Art Point Gallery, raised more than R70,000 for animal welfare, with all 40 artworks selling for at least R1,000.
One of the upcycled art pieces sold at the RePAWposed TEARS Art Exhibition and Auction. (Supplied) The idea came to artist Aimee Kruger, a once burnt-out high school art teacher who opened the gallery in 2022. Her friend and fellow Noordhoek artist Ingrid Altmann had the bright idea of rescuing unwanted paintings from the charity’s three shops and giving them a creative makeover.
Old landscapes, portraits and other unloved canvases were transformed with playful cartoons, caricatures and animal-inspired additions by Altmann, turning what would once have been passed over on a charity-shop shelf into big-hit gallery buys.
One of the reinvented artworks sold at the RePAWposed TEARS Art Exhibition and Auction. (Supplied) Tears is situated close to the Masiphumelele township and takes in abandoned animals, providing them with dedicated rescue, veterinary care and rehabilitation work.
Kruger — whose two rescue cats came from Tears — and Altmann are both big supporters and, four years ago, decided to upscale Altmann’s discarded-art ventures into a fundraiser.
A parachuting cat is among the paintings sold at the RePAWposed TEARS Art Exhibition and Auction. (Supplied) So they expanded on the idea, inviting other local artists to unleash their own creativity on all the discarded works they could source from Tears. The result, Kruger says, has become a much-anticipated annual auction.
“We take dumped old artworks, repurpose and revamp them and give them a whole new life. Then we sell everything off at an everything-must-go charity event that people have come to love. We’ve got quite a few collectors who have a lot of Tears pieces in their homes,” Kruger said.
