A stroke of art

Picasso said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist when one grows up.” The statement made by the legendary and highly celebrated painter speaks directly to the story of Hendrik Thetete, a painter who has been sketching for the past four years and dreams of doing it professionally.

The former St Boniface learner is an economics student at the University of Namibia and has a passion for visual arts. “I love to draw everything and what I draw is inspired by what I see,” said Thetete.

His story is a cliché he says. He tells The Zone he started drawing at a very young age. “I started off by cutting magazine pages and I would draw the pictures I saw on those pages on my own… that is where it all started,” said Thetete. He says in 2008, when he started school at St Boniface, his passion for drawing phased out because he had to concentrate on his academics. “I did not get time to do anything else and I stopped drawing until a point when I forgot I had this talent,” recalls Thetete.

Years later, he started seeing sketches of some of his favourite artists on social media and that inspired him to work on his own material as well. “In 2014, I saw paintings by a Brazilian painter and I decided to get back into drawing. I was just inspired to express my talent and let the world know about it,” said Thetete. The artist says he initially started drawing for his friends and family and just for “fun” but he has tremendous talent and he now earns money for his sketches. “I started off by drawing for my friends and family and I just decided to turn my passion into a business and it is working out well so far,” said Thetete.

The economics student says he initially chose to study economics because he was not aware he could make a living from his artistic talent. “I started doing economics because I was not really aware I could do something else besides something that I could study for, but now I know that through my art I can also make a living,” shared Thetete.

The pencil sketch artist says he specialises in three-dimensional (3D) sketching and drawing paintings by using coffee. “I love realistic paintings and that is why my paintings are centred around 3D because, they are more creative and artistically challenging to draw,” said Thetete. He says he wanted to challenge himself artistically and decided to draw with coffee also to distinguish himself from the crop of other sketchers in the country. “Coffee paintings just amaze me and it is sort of unique because not a lot of people can paint with coffee so coffee-based paintings is my stand-out technique,” shared Thetete. The painter says he gets requests from people through social media platforms and that is how he managed to keep his passion for sketching alive. “Every week I get requests from people to draw pictures or portraits for them and sometimes get overbooked, it is actually a good thing for me,” said Thetete. The sketcher says not even technology can replace the work that painters do because what they draw is authentic. “You see there are more and more apps that turn people's photos into the kind of sketches we draw, but that will never replace our work because what we do is authentic and raw and it is actually real work done with a lot of desire,” said Thetete. He gets a lot of joy when he draws something and shows it to his clients. “Some people actually cry when I give them their sketches and that just pushes me to work hard and excel at what I do,” said Thetete.

The visual artist says he enjoys drawing realistic sketches based on objects that he sees compared to sketches that he “imagines” or thinks of. “Drawing something is not easy because it comes out of you and not everyone can do that. What I usually like to draw is objects that I see because it is really amazing when you can take anything real and put it on paper and even make it look better than it does physically,” said Thetete.

For Thetete, drawing is not only a passion, but is something that is therapeutic and almost religious. “Before I start drawing I usually tell myself to draw what I think and not what the actual object looks like and I usually take long walks to get inspiration and to get pumped up,” said Thetete. On average he says he sketches take about eight hours to finish. “It's a process and it is not easy but my sketches take about eight hours,” said Thetete.

He says that Namibians still need to warm up to the idea of art being considered something very important or as a career. “You know it is Namibia and you need to work hard, especially in the arts industry to get where you want, because people still do not take artists or the art we do seriously, but there is room for improvement and many people are actually open-minded about what we do,” said Thetete.

He emphasised that art is a very important aspect in every society and that it even affects the lives of those who do not appreciate it. “Everything you see from movies, music and buildings they are all forms of art. We entertain shelter and care for many people through the use of art and that is what many people do not get. Art is very important. It is just a pity that people do not think highly of it,” said Thetete.

The young artist says he has plans of exhibiting some of his paintings in the near future. “At some point I would like to get my own art gallery to exhibit my art, but getting there is not easy. I will keep on pushing until that is a dream come true,” said Thetete.



SHONA NGAVA