The Art House

The Art House 🧑🏻‍🎨 Lize Dames
🎨 Creative Workshops • Courses • Photography • Graphic Design Lize Dames | The Art House

The Art House is a creative learning and facilitation space founded by Lize Dames in Swakopmund, Namibia. At its core, The Art House is focused on creative workshops and courses designed for individuals, families, friends, community groups, schools, NGOs, businesses, and visitors who want to explore creativity in a meaningful, hands-on way. These include one-day workshops, private group experience

s, and multi-day courses in art, design, photography, and creative practice. Alongside its learning programmes, The Art House also offers professional photography, graphic design, and creative consulting services, helping individuals and organisations communicate their stories through thoughtful visual work. The space is built on the belief that creativity is for everyone — not as a luxury, but as a way of learning, connecting, and expressing ideas.

01/09/2026

SOMEWHERE BETWEEN ABSTRACT ACRYLICS AND JACKSON PO***CK...

There were ten of us around one long table at Bar Zonder Naam. A sort of Last Supper, if the disciples had been given acrylic paint, mimosas and permission to make a glorious mess. 😂

There were old friends reconnecting, new friendships beginning, plenty of talking, laughing... and then, every now and then, complete silence, as everyone disappeared into their own little worlds.

Unexpectedly, someone inevitably dips a paintbrush into the wrong glass. “Careful. This happens more often than you think.” as I have taken many a sip of paint water myself. 😂

As my sister Annie always says: “Remember, teaching is 90% theatre and 10% theory.” And so in this moment of not knowing, we laugh. And when we laugh, we remember.

We're not here to pretend we know everything.

Whether you've never picked up a paintbrush before, you've been painting for years, or you're basically Jackson Po***ck... there is always something new to discover.

One of the loveliest things about returning to these workshops is hearing someone say, “I found the time for me again.” A little pocket of time where you get to put everything else down for a few hours and come back to yourself.

We all have an inner Jackson Po***ck, Frida Kahlo or Andy Warhol, just waiting for their creative escape. And if it so happens that you are unfamiliar with these artists, well, it’s time for you to attend an Art House Workshop.

Maybe it's lino printing, drawing, textiles, poetry, colour, or something you haven't tried yet. There are so many little doors into creativity. At The Art House, I simply like opening a few of them. You never quite know what you'll find on the other side.

A DAY IN USAKOS ✏️🖤I arrived in Usakos with a rather simple invitation.Come and draw.Karen had invited me to facilitate ...
27/08/2026

A DAY IN USAKOS ✏️🖤
I arrived in Usakos with a rather simple invitation.
Come and draw.
Karen had invited me to facilitate the first of what we hope will become many creative gatherings in the community. Her vision is bigger than a drawing workshop. It is about bringing people together, sharing skills, and creating new possibilities through creativity.
We gathered at Nubeb Chalets Restaurant, where the tables slowly filled with paper, pencils, charcoal, coffee and tea.
And then the ladies arrived.
Some came with a little uncertainty.
“I can’t draw.”
“I can’t even draw a stick figure.”
But that is the funny thing about drawing.
You don’t actually have to know how to draw.
You just have to learn how to look.
We started with the things around us. Shapes. Shadows. Objects. Little details that had been there all along, quietly waiting to be noticed.
And slowly, the pencils began to move.
The hesitation disappeared.
Lines became forms. Forms became drawings. And by the end of the day, there were women holding up pieces of work they had made themselves, looking at them with the wonderful realisation that perhaps they could draw after all.
Perhaps they could make things.
Perhaps there were more creative possibilities waiting for them than they had imagined.
In between all of this, there was a beautiful braai, potato salad, good coffee, plenty of tea, conversation and laughter, all thoughtfully organised by Karen.
And somewhere between the charcoal-covered fingers and the shared lunch, I realised that this was about much more than learning to draw.
It was about gathering.
About learning a skill that can grow into something more.
Something that can become art, confidence, a new creative outlet, or perhaps even something that can one day be shared, exhibited or sold.
This was only the beginning.
And I left Usakos feeling incredibly grateful to have been invited into this chapter of its story.
Here’s to more people discovering what their hands are capable of. ✏️🖤

We spend so much of our lives waiting for the weekend, only to rush through it.So let’s do Sunday differently.Come to Ba...
20/08/2026

We spend so much of our lives waiting for the weekend, only to rush through it.

So let’s do Sunday differently.

Come to Bar Zonder Naam.
Let us pour you a mimosa.
Put a blank canvas in front of you.

Then forget about the clock.

Sip slowly. Paint freely. Talk. Laugh. Linger.

Somewhere between the first brushstroke and the last sip,
you’ll wonder why Sundays were ever meant for anything else. 🥂🎨

19/08/2026

A MORNING AT PLOT LILOF 🌿
The east wind came with us that morning.
It followed us into the garden as we wandered between the olive trees, gathering leaves and little pieces of the landscape that caught our eye.
Then we carried them inside.
And suddenly the house was full of everything.
Art supplies scattered across tables. Leaves pressed beneath rollers. Prints hanging from a little washing line strung through the room. Glasses of fizzy pomelo drinks catching the light. Homemade breads, beautiful jams, laughter coming from every corner.
There was something wonderfully unruly about it all.
People making.
People discovering.
People holding up their prints and getting excited about what had appeared on the paper.
No one quite knew what a particular leaf would leave behind until the paper was lifted.
And somewhere between the printing and the eating and the talking, I realised that this was the part I love most about making art with people.
It creates a reason to gather.
To enter someone’s home and meet the people they love.
To share food.
To get your hands a little messy.
To notice the small things.
To make something you didn’t quite expect to make.
Ansunet’s home became a little world for the morning.
Warm and generous and full of life.
Outside, the east wind kept howling.
Inside, we made our own weather. 🌿

19/07/2026

Perhaps drawing was never about the pencil.

Perhaps it has always been about learning to see.

Join us for our Graphite Pencil & Charcoal Drawing Workshop in Usakos. ✍🏼

Bookings: 081 453 1687

Some of the most beautiful colours were never made in a factory. 🌿🎨Join us as we turn turmeric, beetroot, coffee, tea an...
16/07/2026

Some of the most beautiful colours were never made in a factory. 🌿🎨

Join us as we turn turmeric, beetroot, coffee, tea and other natural ingredients into beautiful works of art. Slow down, create, connect, and discover the beauty of Nature’s Colors.

📍 Limited spaces • Pre-bookings only

| _ |

15/07/2026

I watched forty people arrive carrying different versions of themselves.

Some walked in chatting confidently. Others quietly found a seat and looked at the blank canvas in front of them, wondering where to begin.

And then, slowly, the room softened.

Brushstrokes replaced overthinking. Strangers became conversation partners. Laughter traveled from one easel to the next. Paint found its way onto fingertips, sleeves and canvases, exactly where it belonged.

This is the part that keeps calling me back.

It never stops amazing me how creativity asks so little of us, just the willingness to begin.

Under the trees at Tide 6 Modern Bistro, with Stefan Steyn's music drifting through the air, a fire crackling nearby and the afternoon unfolding around us, everyone gave themselves permission to play again.

Some stayed long after the workshop had ended, because they weren't quite ready to leave that feeling behind. Adding one more mark... then another...

These are my favourite moments.

Thank you to Chef Lize van der Merwe for bringing this delightful gathering to life and for capturing these moments so beautifully.

My heart is already looking forward to the next one…

The Art House | Art For Art Sake

Address

Swakopmund

Opening Hours

Monday 10:00 - 17:00
Tuesday 10:00 - 17:00
Wednesday 10:00 - 17:00
Thursday 10:00 - 17:00
Friday 10:00 - 17:00
Saturday 10:00 - 17:00
Sunday 10:00 - 17:00

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