This is my story. I was born in Kenya in 1941, and I have become an illustrator and writer.

After primary and secondary schooling in Kenya, I studied at the Central School of Arts & Crafts in London, 1958 to 1959. While studying I worked as a puppeteer for John Wright’s Marionettes: the company was invited to represent England at the First International Festival of Puppetry in Bucharest in 1958 and won the Gold Medal for companies of four or fewer members.

I went back to East Africa in 1960, working as an art director and graphic designer in Uganda and Kenya. While in Kampala I illustrated Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol, returning to London in 1966. Living there until 1972 I worked as a freelance graphic designer, stage-hand, barman, waiter and cleaner, while illustrating Browning’s The Pied Piper of Hamelyn, Aesop’s Fables and Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. This is also when I wrote and illustrated the first draft of Kijana.

In 1972, I came to South Africa and worked in Johannesburg as an art gallery manager, art director,
freelance graphic designer, and sales representative for publishers and book distributors.

I created new illustrated versions of Kijana in 1974 and 2021, and completed a commission to paint a mural depicting Tolkien’s The Lord of The Rings in 1979. In 1980, I collaborated with children of the Montessori preschools to publish The Story of Christmas, wrote and illustrated An African Alphabet in 2000, A Small Garden in 2008, and Glittersnake in 2023.

I have held five solo exhibitions: the first at the Donovan Maule Theatre, Nairobi in 1965, two of Kijana at the South African Association of Arts Galleries in Johannesburg and Durban, and two of drawings at Gallery 21 in 1984, and the Crake Gallery in 1988 in Johannesburg. I have also been included in four group exhibitions: SA Association of Arts in 1973; Pretoria Art Museum in 1977; Rand Afrikaans Universiteit in 1977; and the Lidchi Gallery in 1982.

I work mainly with pencil on paper. I have painted with acrylics (on wood), and worked with pastels, wax and linseed oil, and in sand combining line with found objects.

Extracts from some reviews:

Kijana

‘Frank Horley’s art is low-key in line and colour, but charged with emotion and imagery. He is an artist-poet whose art has freshness and great luminosity’ – Dennis Godfrey, The Star 1974

‘The stories, which draw their inspiration and metaphor from African life while owing nothing to folklore, are allegorical, reflecting the teller’s concern about the gradual disappearance of primitive Africa. The pictures are superbly executed with a clean, rhythmical line and hauntingly beautiful’ – Raeford Daniel, Rand Daily Mail 1974

The Lord of the Rings

‘The masterpiece, which was painted piece by piece with acrylic paint on wood panels, shows insight into Tolkien’s imaginary world… By painting each wall a different season with its own colour scheme, Horley very neatly put the main events in the book into a symbolic ring… To honour the sphere of Tolkien’s work, inspired by Celtic folklore, Horley uses painting conventions that we can recognize from medieval manuscripts. Perspective is not three-dimensional as in Post-Renaissance art, but two-dimensional. Foreground, middle-ground and background are shown vertically on top of each other… as in the scenic progression above the sword-crossing protagonists and the duel between the Black Prince and the Lady Eowin in the main battle scene… But Horley also puts his own mark in this painting to show his connection with Africa by including different animal motifs…’ – Extract from Bettie Lambrecht’s article for Vermaak, 2001

An African Alphabet

‘Frank Horley has composed a love poem to his continent in just 26 letters’ – Rina Minervinini, Sawubona

‘Lateral thought produces a visual alphabet for all Africans’ – Maureen Isaacson, Sunday Independent

‘The story of the rebirth of Afrika… it adds such words as happiness, joy, abundance, wealth, freedom and development to the vocabulary of the Afrikan dictionary. It challenges us to liberate these words from the chains of colonialism’ – Saul Molobi

‘An African Alphabet is a work of compelling visual imagery – text and illustrations combine to introduce the alphabet in various African languages. The subtle yet vivid images range across cultures and the natural world, stimulating readers to think and reflect on the world around them and become creative through language’ – Andries Oliphant