The donkey cart that went from Africa to Iceland

''Days Outing'' by Delene Lambert. 

IT is currently accepted that everyone’s DNA stretches back to a handful of ancestors whose progeny meandered from somewhere in the Western Cape into the wide world.

Along the way, about 5 000 years ago somewhere near Nubia in east Africa, these ancestors of ours saw their ass — and promptly tamed it.

The donkey has been an integral part of humanity’s history ever since, but in all this time, only one donkey cart has travelled all the way from Willowton Road in Pietermaritzburg to Iceland.

This donkey cart was painted by Delene Lambert, who specialises in wonderfully detailed oil paintings of buildings for corporates, but in her spare time she paints wildlife and anything that has a mix of wheels and nostalgia.

The widely travelled Lambert lives and works in the hamlet of Vaalwater, near the Botswana border. She has had several group and solo exhibitions, and was a featured artist in The South African Artist Magazine for the March/April 2013 edition, and is one of the selected artists to appear in the Artists of the Waterberg collectors’ directory by Sas Kloppers.

As far as Wheels could establish, Lambert’s paintings are only on sale at the Blue Caterpillar Gallery at Butterflies for Africa in Willowton Road.

Studio manager Jeni Cramer said she sold the oil painting of a donkey cart carrying three mothers and their children, to tourists from Iceland in December last year. They paid R7 500 for the painting in its frame and a very reasonable R1 800 in courier fees to get it flown to Reykjavík.

Lambert also loves painting classic cars, old tractors and broken-down wagons, and she welcomes commissions, having recently completed a work for Key Group.
Details from artsales.co.za or Jeni Cramer at 033 387 1356.