CONNECTIONS

An 18th-century monastery in the Cape Winelands later an AVANT-GARDE ARTIST'S STUDIO - has been converted into a SPIRITUAL RETREAT for a young family.

- GRAHAM WOOD

It was six years ago, while exploring a "potential art project" in the small Western Cape town of Tulbagh, that Abigail Rands stumbled on this remarkable building. Her family owns a wine farm nearby, so she feels a strong connection to the area; and besides, she says, "I like beautiful architecture, raw materials and good art." And this house had all three in bucketloads.

It is one of the oldest buildings in the town - the first monastery and mission school established in 1797 and its distinctive gables, thick whitewashed walls, wooden rafters and thatched roof were the very embodiment of traditional Cape Winelands architecture. More recently, however, the artist Christo Coetzee lived there from the 1970s until his death at the turn of the century. For a time afterwards, the house was a museum dedicated to his life and work.

"A friend of Christo's took us around and told us stories about each artwork. Everything I took in that day stayed with me," says Abigail - and it wasn't long before she came back. This time, she'd had an idea: she wanted to turn the house into a retreat of sorts; a place where, as she puts it, "you can let go and connect with how you really feel". Later, her vision came to include a yoga studio in the old monastery building (which had once served as Coetzee's studio).