JACQUELINE CHANTLER PAINTS BRILLIANT LIFE INTO OLD COW SKULLS
A new jewel in the crown of the Garden Route art scene is the Kop gallery of artist Jacqueline Chantler. Her curiosity in skulls as a canvas for her imagination has launched a one of a kind field of art.
Jacqueline Chantler is a creative artist based in the town of George, along the idyllic Garden Route. Creating beauty has always been her passion, transforming waste into meaningful art and reflections on life.
What started as a hobby for this busy mum of two, soon turned into a full fledged business that has seen her works be sold to clients across the world.
Inspired by her around the world, Jacqueline creates all her masterpieces by hand, using various hand paint techniques, colours and styles. Her sought after pieces transform living spaces, inside or out.
“There’s a lot of love and care that these skulls go through to get to this process. There’s almost eight pairs of hands that they go through for the cleaning and the painting and even me choosing a skull for each client,” she says.
“The skulls changed my life, they made me grow as a person and grow as a business owner,” explains Jacqueline. A range of cow or antelope skulls are available, each hand-painted with a unique touch.
The Kop shop has become the most unusual office for Jackie’s crew, who wouldn’t trade places for all the world. “When I started my skulls, I did everything on my own and I scaled up and I’ve got a great team working with me.”
“Working on skulls is very interesting, it’s never the same. Every skull is different, you can do the same pattern, but it’s always a bit different,” says Karla Lenferna de la Motte, Artist and Designer at Kop, “he designing, being able to work with people, their personal likes, it’s very interesting and fulfilling.”
“The team that I have in this beautiful shop, they’re all amazing women. I feel so strongly about empowering women and helping people to do work in a creative environment that is so important for me to do, to let them also do whatever they want to do and give me ideas,” exclaims Jackie.
Before her cow skull art business, Jackie studied fashion design, worked in London for a year and taught English in Thailand until her moment of genius struck.
“I was a stay at home mom for about five years and I started my business and now I’m a business owner. It was a really big change in my life, I didn’t even know anything about business.”
With a bullish determination and infinite curiosity. This is just chapter one in the tale of Jacqueline Chantler and her fantastic koppe.
