Fourteen-year-old Ndinae has bright future ahead

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Fourteen-year-old Ndinae Netshivhodza from Khalavha should be counted among the most skilful young artists currently in South Africa. His love of drawing started as a hobby during free periods when he was in the sixth grade at Khalavha Primary School. While his peers would be busy playing, he would take out his pencil and start drawing all kinds of things. “One day, my class teacher came across my drawings, and he was so impressed with them that he encouraged me to continue,” he said.

Ndinae, who is in Grade 8 at Phiriphiri Secondary School, now mostly focuses on creating portraits of celebrities in sports, politics, business, etc. He has produced striking impressions of Springbok rugby captain Siya Kolisi, as well as President Cyril Ramaphosa and former U.S. president Donald Trump.

His growing passion for art led him to start entering drawing competitions. He entered his first drawing competition for school kids in the Nzhelele area earlier this year, where he outclassed them all. “I won first place out of more than 30 learners. In August this year, I entered the Edgars Self-Portrait Drawing Competition in Thohoyandou and am still waiting for the result. I believe I will make it,” he said confidently.

At the moment, Ndinae’s drawing kit consists only of a charcoal pencil and a mono zero eraser. “I still need a drawing board, turbo-mono zero erasers, and other materials such as dark charcoal powder, watercolour pencils, crayons, watercolour paint, and brushes. I like fine art and pencil portraits because this allows me to be creative and capture the personality of my subject in pencil. This is what some famous artists call ‘the art of seeing’. You don’t have to go to amazing places to see, but it’s more fun that way. It takes me only a week to complete a portrait.”

Ndinae said that when he completed his matric, he wanted to pursue a career in art and design. His dream is to become a museum curator, courtroom sketch artist, or to have his own art studio.

The young boy’s father, Thivhulawi, said he was amazed by his son’s remarkable talents. “He is still a baby in art, so he still needs to learn how to crawl before he can stand up and walk. He has a long journey ahead of him to fulfil his dreams, but he has my full support. Part of my plan is to find him a good college where he can learn the finer details of art and design,” he said proudly.

By: Kaizer Nengovhela

Kaizer Nengovhela started writing stories for Limpopo Mirror in 2000. Prior to that he had a five year stint at Phala-Phala FM as sports presenter. In 2005 Kaizer received an award from the province's premier as Best Sports Presenter. The same year he was also nominated as Best Sports Reporter by the Makhado Municipality. Kaizer was awarded the Mathatha Tsedu award in 2014.