"An art crafter using natural, local materials to make unique décor items, and bespoke collectables". This is how South African born Lorraine Piers describes what she has become, but there’s a lot more to her story.

After acquiring her art qualification, Lorraine went to Germany and spent seven years learning the demanding skills of art-restoration.

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From the McGregor main street, and even from the 'stoep' of the gallery there is nothing to adequately prepare visitors for the experience inside. One step and you are in a privileged space. Colours glow softly in the stillness amid canvasses caressed with gentle brush strokes. 'Emotions recollected in tranquility' is how Edna Fourie describes her paintings.

Her art also includes three-dimensional work created from recycled and found materials, as well as installations.

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This dorpshuis, built at the turn of the previous century, is the home of Jo Nowicki and Mike Kamstra. Apart from the three stone lions that account for its name, there are lions in the colourful stained glass of the front door.
At the back of the property is a magnificent succulent garden, and an airy art studio where Jo teaches drawing according to her own unique method which, she guarantees, will bring out the artist in anyone.

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When Barbara Sowter and her husband Norman named their house they did not know that "man" and "ara" had meanings and that those meanings, food from heaven, the sun god, and being blessed, summed up the sense of sanctuary which Barbara experienced when she first came to the village.
It was this feeling of sanctuary - and the fact that she fell in love with clay while making the design model for her house - which led Barbara to take up ceramics and become - to her own surprise - a sculptor of icons of meditation.

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This barn used to belong to a wagon-maker whose wagons transported McGregor's whipstocks along with passengers to Worcester to catch the train to Johannesburg. It has also served as a dairy and a wine-cellar.
Now - attractively pumpkin-coloured - it is the gallery and workshop of Paul de Jongh (one of South Africa's leading potters) and Nina Shand, his consort and co-worker. They have been making pots here for ten years and they live in the adjacent house with their children, Sarah and Joshua.

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This attractive gallery belongs to Jimmy and Anne Binos and does double duty as an Internet Café. You'll be welcomed by two glossy Ridgebacks who will politely usher you to the door and inside. There at their busy-looking desks you will find blonde-Nordic Anne, and darkly-Mediterranean Jimmy - and a generous wide-ranging selection of village art.

Anne's work tends to be gentle in colour and subject matter, whereas Victoria Dryden makes a range of powerful statements in her semi-abstract oil paintings.

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Call at the office for your copy of the art-in-a-garden map and enter the sequestered world of the Temenos garden - heart-child of Billy Kennedy. Walk the maze of paths - past shrines, flower beds, ponds, and statues. It is a walk of inspiring quietude culminating in the profound stillness of The Well - a gem of a meditation centre where time and place cease to exist.

During days of silent retreat the gardens are closed to visitors.

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Annalien van der Colff had the priviledge to paint the late Busi Mhlongo's prayers on her latest CD Amakohlwe. One of the paintings was also used on the CD cover. It was a total intuitive experience and give her an oppurtunity to do portrets, her forte while studying Fine Arts at Potchefstroom university. For Annalien, music and color go hand in hand. Visit Villagers to see more of her olive landscapes. She paints under the name AMO.

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Vrolijkheid Nature Reserve was once the home of a dozen zebras with unusual stripe patterns. They'd been chosen in the hope of breeding quaggas. The project failed and the stables and staff buildings now serve new purposes. In one of them, at the end of a circuitous bumpy track you will find Roy Reycraft and Pam. Don't be deceived by the PWD (Public Works Department) look of the place. Inside is a stage setting for Hansel and Gretel - doll's house miniatures and Pam's hand-crafted objects are all over the place.

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The name ZUMM is from the Luhdo family's names - Zoe, Uli, Mary, Mika and Uli Luhdo is the artist. What you see out front is the merest hint of what lies within. Every surface of what was once a very ordinary house now testifies to a prolific creativity. Mobiles hang from ceilings and trees like elaborately-shaped fruits, mundane household items like cupboard doors suggest a Mad Hatter's Tea-party, and strange animals crouch in corners.

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