Bursting with colour, his paintings are a reflection of the charming personality he possesses. He greats me with a smile and asks if I need anything. I casually decline and ask if I can do a profile on him. The stall is swarming with art loves and can hardly get a moment to engage with him long enough to ask a question.
This is Benjamin Furawo, originally Zimbabwean a painter with a talent for projecting everyday life in still art that one could almost connect with. ‘Painting one art work can take thirty minutes to two days depending on the mood of the day’, he says. He paints everyday and says ‘my uncle is the reason I paint, he strongly influenced my love for painting’.
Although he has faced many hard times such as his friends enduring xenophobia, to him being unable to find water paint to do what he loves and makes a living off. Although he loves being in South Africa but he still feels that he needs to explore his options. He plans on going to Germany at the end of September.
In every painting he gives his all and he wants to be remembered for the passion he portrayed in every art piece. ‘ I want people to appreciate my painting, that’s all’, he says. He casually tells me how he gave someone the same morning one of his art works for free. ‘I do it for the love not the money’.
by C Pumla Luthuli
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