Aviva received her education in Pretoria where she matriculated in 1978, achieving a distinction in Art. At the University of Pretoria, she obtained a BA Degree and a post graduate Diploma in Museum Technology. She married and moved to Gazankulu. Moving to the countryside proved to be the driving force for Aviva to nurture her artistic talent. It was during their stay in Sibasa, Venda, that Aviva was first noticed as young artist. She participated in an exhibition hosted by the SA Embassy in Venda, as well as a solo exhibition in Makhado and several group exhibitions in Pretoria.
She moved to Tzaneen in 1990 where she annual art exhibitions and taught art to children. After a decade Aviva moved to Knysna where her talent was noticed. Aviva has extensive experience in the use of acrylic paints and oil colours.
Aviva is captivated by the vibrancy and brilliance of colour and light, two elements that she studied through her great admiration for Vincent van Gogh. She believes that colour expresses something in itself and with confident brush strokes she works towards seizing the light. To achieve this, Aviva developed her own style of painting, not following trends. She knows the rules of composition and visual design and uses them as guide lines, but prefers to go beyond the obvious to achieve a strong balance and visual tension between the different elements. Aviva strives towards harmony in the depiction of everyday scenes. She pays much attention to her sketches which capture the beautiful flowing postures of her subjects. She prefers to depict women as she not only has a natural flair for painting the fabric of their clothes, but also admires the way women proudly work in contented ways.
Aviva’s mind has absorbed and distilled the different atmospheres of the areas where she lived. She puts her imagination to work on the fruits of her intimate knowledge of life around her to lend a timeless quality to her extraordinary depictions of ordinary people and their everyday activities. At times, the viewer is made to feel that he or she is seeing these people and what they are doing for the first time. She invites the viewer to engage with her pictures using their own imaginations and complete the stories with their personal experiences of life. Aviva paints from the heart without fear of inhibition. This ability lends both depth and spiritual integrity to her paintings. Aviva strives to paint in a spirit which is true to the meaning and simplicity of her name. It is this spirit that gives her work that something extra which is enjoyed by art lovers in this country and abroad.