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Netilie Marozva Lifestyle Reporter
Creating a masterpiece that is elegant and surreal is every artist’s dream and 18-year-old Highfield duo, Abel Zvorufura and Edmore Gumbodete are no exception with their painting of a portrait of President Robert Mugabe entitled “The Chosen Leader”.
The painting shows the President leaning against Jesus Christ in a humble manner and Jesus embraces him to show that he is a leader appreciated by the Lord and the two have a special connection.
“The painting represents the biblical saying which emphasises that leaders are chosen by God and the fact that the President is leaning against Jesus shows that he depends on the Lord for strength in his ruling and that he humbles himself before the Lord,” Zvorufura said.
The duo said that it took them one week to come up with the sketch and two weeks to finish the painting and they used acrylic paint in the background and water soluble pencil colours on the artwork.
The painting was presented to President Mugabe last week and he was delighted by the youngsters’ talent.
Portrait paintings of First Lady Dr Grace Mugabe and Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa are also some of the artists’ work.
“In 2012 we made a portrait painting of Prophet Makandiwa and in December last year we made another one for the First Lady. Our inspiration mainly comes from people who have an influence in society and also everything else that happens around us,” Gumbodete said.
Despite receiving praises from their families and friends for their work, the artists said that it was not easy to come up with such masterpieces. “The most challenging issue is that we do not have a proper studio to use and the small space that we have at home is not enough to accommodate all our work. Sometimes we also run out of materials like paint and brushes and this disturbs our work,” Gumbodete said.
The two also said that they approached different arts organisations for assistance in exhibiting their work but to no avail.
“Last year we approached the National Art Gallery asking for help in exhibiting our work but they could not help us,” Zvorufura said.
When asked what he thinks about Zimbabwe’s arts industry, Zvorufura expressed concern on the need for improvement in the industry.
“I think the arts industry is not offering enough support to young upcoming artists like sponsorship and marketing and also education to help nurture their talents. There are a lot of young aspiring artists who are hesitating to showcase their talents due to lack of sponsorship.”
However, all these challenges are not stopping the young artists from aiming higher. “The challenges that we are facing right now will not stop us from achieving our goals, instead they make us stronger. We wish to one day have our own studio, get scholarships to study abroad to increase our knowledge on art and hopefully to be recognised nationally and internationally,” Zvorufura added.
Even though they paint most of the portraits together, they have other artworks that they paint separately.
“We mainly paint the portraits together because they require much work and take much time to finish but we both have other artworks that we do separately.”
The two started painting in 2009 when they were still in Form One and they have been inseparable ever since.
Online Reporter