Even in the creative world of advertising it sometimes happens that the job requires more managing and less creativity.

This is what happened to Ross Chowles, creative director of the Jupiter Drawing Room in Cape Town. “I needed a creative outlet, especially one that didn’t have a client telling me what to do,” he says.

So while his peers wre out playing golf or riding bikes on Sundays, Chowles was painting. “I still have no style or inner narrative (message) but rather I paint what captures my attention and imagination.”

A 17-piece collection of Chowles’s work can be seen at the Misael Gallery in Cape Town from 21 October 2010. Called an “exhibition of a multiple personality disorder” the various paintings have nothing to do with each other, “other than the fact that I had fun painting them”, Chowles says.

The paintings are all from the past two years. Chowles adds: “I like them all but a handful I really love. I feel that I’m getting somewhere.”