My grandmother told me in a dream that I’d come to Rome four years before it happened. She had died several years earlier and we’d been very close. So in 1993 when I found out my husband had a job here with the United Nations, I was overjoyed.

We had been living in Paris for two years and found Rome quite provincial when we arrived, but it has changed a lot since then; for example there are more exhibitions and festivals in music and more international cinema. There is a real mix of nationalities, cultures and languages, plus more Romans are travelling and so are open to new experiences and influences.

We stayed in a hotel for two weeks when we arrived, which was a bit restrictive after a time; then a colleague of my husband said we could stay in his Trastevere apartment while he was away in August. That gave us a chance to discover the area while having an apartment to ourselves. We liked the area and managed to find an apartment of our own which is away from the main bustle of Trastevere but still within walking distance.

An ideal day for me begins by opening the blinds and letting the sunlight flood into the living room from across the balcony. Then it’s off to Piazza S. Cosimato where I’m spoilt for the best fresh fruit and vegetables and can enjoy a good chitchat with the locals in true Roman style. A typical lunch means fresh salad, cheese and bread, and maybe a small glass of wine. I would walk that off with a stroll in the centre of Trastevere; I love the main church, S. Maria in Trastevere, especially the mosaic of Jesus with his arms around Mary, just beautiful. I also like the bar S. Calisto and all the different characters you meet.

I appreciate the live-and-let-live attitude of the Romans – it’s not a “nanny” society by any means. I am inspired by the gold, apricot and turquoise Roman light. For me Roman architecture, especially in the more tumbledown areas of the centro storico, is a kind of urban landscape; you can see canyons, valleys and tree-topped hills in it.

Something I really notice is the humanity of the Romans: I don’t know anywhere else where people will stop and talk with those begging in the streets. There’s this great sense of dignity.

In the afternoons I paint for at least four hours. I have a studio which lets in plenty of afternoon sun and is a tranquil setting to work.

I remember first trying to draw when I was four or five; I was given a book called “The Water-Babies” by Charles Kingsley, which had these wonderful illustrations; all the water babies were naked but sexless. With a pen I added gender – I was a stickler for accuracy. This was the start of my lifelong interest in depicting the human body. I also recall my grandmother being very uninhibited about dressing in front of us children. She was the subject of my first life drawing, when I was about five. I painted everything after that; we had a large garden with all kinds of animals such as monkeys, a tortoise and a lemur, which I drew. Then in 1975 I travelled around Greece and got a lot of ideas and inspiration from the landscape. When I was back in Cape Town – where I grew up – I was keen to know if anyone might be interested in buying my work, so I put on an exhibition. Being inexperienced, I underpriced everything so ended up selling a lot!

Part of my work involves painting my dreams. I’ve always had the most vivid dreams, just like the one of my grandmother telling me I’d live in Rome. Then I have to think of a way to convey them in painting, which can be quite abstract. To paint a dream I go back to that instantaneous electrical impulse that is the dream. Then I “clothe” that impulse in colours and geometric shapes that convey the feel of the dream. Lastly I add a few images from memory. This approach to constructing and deconstructing the vision was in fact explained to me in a dream.

I might get an idea as soon as I wake up or when I’m in the supermarket, then a painting can take three hours or four weeks, it’s that unpredictable. Like a writer you can get a ‘block’ where you can’t think of anything; I struggled with a 20-year-long creative block but was at last helped by an excellent teacher who suggested I switch from brushes to painting with rags – a small thing, but it made all the difference.

Right now things are pretty hectic as I have an exhibition coming up so there’s lots of planning to do. I held back from having an art show here until I felt I had enough valid work. Now I’m ready. I’ll be showing figurative studies, landscapes and still life. But I will also be introducing my dream paintings, which are more abstract. This combination led us to calling the exhibition “Night & Day”.

I get back to Cape Town every two years or so and of course things have changed so much from when I was growing up there. People do ask sometimes how it was to live under apartheid as a white person in South Africa, but when you grow up in an environment of separation and division it doesn’t seem unusual to you. It was only when I went to Greece that I realised how different things were.

Things are not perfect after apartheid; there is still a lot of crime in Cape Town and other areas. But what you do see is a great capacity for forgiveness from both sides, and that brings real hope.

Night & Day is at St Stephen’s Cultural Centre, Via Aventina 7, Rome, 17-21 Oct. By appointment only. Tel. 065750605 or 347/4763685 or email ssccf@ststephens-rome.com or cheryllowrey@mac.com. See also http://web.mac.com/cheryllowrey.

Exhibition Opening:

Tuesday, 16 October 2007 from 17.00 till 20.30 at St. Stephen's Cultural Center Foundation, Via Aventina, 7, Rome.

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