Sarel Greyling was born in 1970 and matriculated at Piet Potgieter High School in Mokopane, South Africa. He graduated with a BA (FA) Information Design degree from the University of Pretoria (UP) in 1991. He started his career working in packaging design and advertising but soon found his niche in editorial design. After 18 months in the industry, he embarked on the adventure of a two-year European working holiday where he intentionally broadened his creative scope. On his return to South Africa, Sarel worked as art director at various Cape Town-based magazines, mainly decor and lifestyle titles. Since April 2019 he has been working freelance from his home-based studio, which allowed him to invest more time working as a fine artist. Around 2000 he started experimenting with rendering modelling clay in flat relief as a medium and several of these illustrations were published, specifically for short stories. In 2013 he attempted his first portrait in modelling clay and two years later, his work was selected among the top 100 entries of the Sanlam Portrait Award. Working from his own photographic reference, he closely studies his subject matter and then mixes the required hues by hand. Modelling clay is commercially available in limited colours only. Just like a painter would mix paint with a brush or palette knife to create the desired colour, he mixes clay by hand to achieve the perfect hue. Sarel has participated in several local group exhibitions, including Home Is Where The Art Is at the Museum of Modern Art Africa, Cape Town (2020/21), A New Nature at Tina Skukan Gallery, Pretoria (2019); Vuleka Award, Association of Art, Belville (2019); What We Need Is Here, Cape Town (2018); Sanlam National Portrait Award – Portrait 100 (finalist), Casa Labia, Cape Town (2015), ABSA Atelier Art Competition (finalist), Sasol Art Gallery, Johannesburg (1994); and New Signatures, SA Association of Arts, Pretoria (1989). Sarel lives in Paarl, Western Cape.