Deidre Nortje doesn’t paint within the lines, and perhaps that is exactly why her work resonates so deeply. This Cape Town-based artist represents Green and Growth in Badisa’s Colour Your World With-series, bringing a message of hope, renewal and quiet resilience through her abstract, nature-inspired work.
For artist and designer Deidre, growth is not something dramatic or sudden. It is something quieter found in moments of reflection, healing, curiosity, and courage. Much like the layers of texture and colour that define her artwork, her own journey has been shaped over time, revealing new depths with each season of life.
Originally from the Free State and now calling the Western Cape home, Deidre’s connection to place has always influenced the way she sees the world. Landscapes, memories, and emotions continue to inspire her creative practice, inviting others to pause, reflect, and reconnect with their own stories.
Her creative journey began with a BA Fine Arts degree from the University of the Free State. Yet life had other plans before she returned fully to her artistic roots. After spending 15 years with Media24, Deidre established her own design studio in 2010, a venture that has flourished for more than sixteen years. While fine art remained a quiet dream in the background, it was only recently that she felt ready to embrace it again.
That return has been both deeply personal and profoundly freeing.
“There are seasons in life where you shed a layer of emotional skin that has held you back,” she reflects. “The next chapter becomes bolder and freer.”
Those experiences of transformation are woven throughout her work. Nature, her greatest source of inspiration, has been a constant companion since childhood. She fondly remembers getting lost in her mother’s magnificent garden, spending hours among the vegetation, immersed in imagination and wonder. Those early adventures nurtured a lifelong curiosity that still fuels her creativity today.
Through intuitive mark-making, layering, and colour, Deidre explores emotions that are often difficult to express in words. Green, the colour celebrated in this month’s campaign, carries special significance for her. It represents memory, belonging, healing, and the emotional imprint of place. It speaks to the gentle yet powerful process of growth itself.
For Deidre, creativity is more than artistic expression; it is a pathway to understanding ourselves. She believes that when we instinctively choose a colour or draw a shape without overthinking, we tap into something deeper within. By returning to the process again and again, a story begins to emerge one that can reveal hidden emotions, experiences, and possibilities.
Her hope is that those who encounter her artwork will bring their own experiences into the conversation. Rather than prescribing meaning, she invites viewers to recognise their own emotions and connections, allowing each piece to become a personal metaphor for memory, healing, or growth.
At the heart of her life is family. Together with her partner, child, and two beloved dogs, she treasures the relationships that ground and sustain her. Beyond them is a wider circle of blood relatives and chosen family whose love enriches every season of life.
As we reflect on this month’s theme of growth, Deidre leaves us with a message of encouragement:
“Growth is rarely dramatic. It happens in small moments of healing, reflection, introspection, and hope. May my art inspire growth, nurture resilience, and remind you that every season holds the promise of renewal. Trust your journey, and with every mark, layer, and colour added to your story, new opportunities for growth unfold.”
Like nature itself, growth happens one layer at a time. And sometimes, the most beautiful transformations are the ones that unfold quietly, colouring our world in ways we never expected.
