Bale steps out of comfort zone
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Sunday March 31, 2024 13:22
The young artist aced the challenge and won a couple of hearts where he was commissioned by different individuals to do more beautiful arts. In an interview with Arts&Culture, Bale said doing murals was a bit out of his element at first, but since he is not the type to shy away from a challenge, he went on and did it even with little or no experience.
He added that he did his signature rainbow rhinos at Northside Primary School and then went on and did them again at Mmokolodi Nature Reserve. “I have a few more murals lined up. Basically the colourful rhino symbolises and raises awareness about the beauty of this rare breed of wildlife and the tragedy is they are being illegally hunted. We need to protect them for the next generations to experience too. The challenge I encountered while doing those art murals was the harsh weather. Working outdoors was at most times affected by the hot weather, which means it slowed me down since I had to take long breaks due to the heat. But challenges come with lessons so I learnt about the safety of working on different heights and landscapes,” he said.
However, despite all those challenges, he said he enjoyed the whole process, from preparing the walls, erecting the scaffold to actually doing the painting. He explained that his latest mural painting was at Northside Primary School for their 50th anniversary. He said it felt good doing something for the first time and actually doing it great.
He further pointed out that the feedback was positive as he is even getting a few more commissioned mural works while working on the current project. He added that people who pass by his artworks usually get his contacts showing interest of his services. This young talent has over the years been more of an abstract painter using free brush strokes with vivid colours and expressionism. He explained that his versatility shows growth as a fine artist. He added that he could literally paint on anything, from walls to canvases, clothes, shoes, furniture, plates and cups.
Bale said challenges were always there such as lack of professional equipment for the project at hand. On the other hand he said he achieved a lot in the past four years in his art career. “I will be hosting my fourth solo exhibition in four years. I did an exhibition tour for four cities, exhibited 20 different artworks at each city and sold a couple paintings in Europe. The latest one is a few postcards sold to a client in Greece. I intend to host a solo exhibition outside the country and mostly have my artworks adopted by an international museum. I also aspire to open a foundation aiming to help and give platform to upcoming creatives,” he said. Moreover, Bale pointed out that locally the local fine art market was steadily growing. He also said there was a community of art lovers and collectors locally.
He explained that internationally since lockdown, the market was huge and seemed fashionable. He also stated that his inspiration came from real life expressions, experiences and feelings from either what he was going through or what he was seeing in his society.