MAYA BESTER ART
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Maya Bester is a 23-year-old abstract artist who lives and creates in the small coastal village of Fisherhaven in South Africa.
Maya studied Graphic Design after school and worked as a freelance illustrator and concept artist. Maya first turned to painting during a time of inner unravelling—a chapter marked by uncertainty, disconnection, and the search for deeper meaning in her life. She became inspired to pursue her love for fine art more seriously in early 2025. That moment became a turning point—the beginning of an honest and ongoing journey of artistic expression from inward to outward.
In the artist’s words: “It wasn’t just about becoming a fine artist. It was about returning to myself.”
Description of Maya’s work
Her paintings are both personal and political – expressing the aftermath of conflict, identity, and displacement, while also reserving space for healing, memory, and quiet strength. Her work is rooted in expressing emotional truth—drawing from life experiences, inner and outer observations. Maya chooses to understand the world through feeling rather than fact.
Through layered textures, bold colour fields, and rhythmic, intuitive mark-making, she creates a visual language for what is often left unspoken.
The artist describes her work as, “A way of both releasing what I carry inside and making sense of what I witness in the world.”
Maya’s Creative Process
Her process is deeply intuitive. She begins by building layers of texture mixed with colour. Next, broad, expressive brushstrokes, expressing the harsh reality of outer experience, are guided by instinct and emotional rhythm. Finally, echoing memory, vulnerability, and quiet inner resilience and balance, are expressed with fine brushstrokes to complete the work.
Inspiration and Influences
Maya refers to artists such as Emily Kame Kngwarreye and Hilma af Klint as inspirational to her work. Maya explains”I feel a deep connection with these artists because they painted from spirit — Hilma af Klint through visions beyond her time, and Emily Kame Kngwarreye through her profound bond with the land. Their work reminds me that true art speaks from the unseen.”
Painting, for Maya, is a form of presence and reclamation – a way to speak when words fail, to honour lives that go unseen, and to invite viewers into deeper connection with their inner selves. Her hope is not to offer answers, but to create space for reflection, feeling, and shared humanity.
CONTACT MAYA
mayabester2002@gmail.com
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