Ruth Lock Shell Art Gallery

About Ruth Lock Shell Art Gallery

To see the work of one of South Africa’s unsung artists, visit the home of Winifred Ruth Lock, who died in 1994 but lived in this house from the day she was born, in 1906.

Whilst Ruth Lock’s work does not qualify as Outsider Art, there are elements in her work that remind one of Helen Martins’ Owl House in Nieu Bethesda. Martins only turned her attention to the yard in which stand the cement figurines for which she is so famous, once she had decorated the inside of her house.

Martins covered the interior surfaces of her house with bright paint and ground glass. Similarly, Ruth Lock decorated her entire house - the floor, windows, walls and lamps - with an intricate daisy pattern. She also focused on shells, and using broken bits and pieces she found at the dump.

The house has been converted into three galleries, the first of which contains a myriad sculptures made almost entirely from sea shells that Ruth collected on her holidays in Port St Johns on the Wild Coast.

The second holds a series of intricate paintings that, on closer inspection, reveal that they too are made from shells.

The third gallery, is a collection called Broken Things - Ruth collected a series of things that she found on rubbish dumps - plates, jugs, teapots - almost all of them broken and tossed out by their owners, which she embellished.

Find out more about Ruth’s art and her devotion to her passion, which dominated her time, by visiting the art gallery. The collection belongs to Ruth Lock’s niece who promised her aunt that she would always keep the collection together.