From fashion to canvas and cartoons
AFTER a stint in banking and nearly two decades as a fashion designer working for various local companies, a Belgian-born Durban man is now turning his time and talents to canvas and cartooning.
Andre Dhaenens, who was born in 1948 in Gent, Belgium, and settled in Durban in 1972, works in oils and gets constant inspiration, he says, from photos and cartoons in The Mercury and other newspapers.
“My wife, Shamilla, complains about all the papers lying around, but to me they serve a greater purpose than just providing news,” he says, pointing out that he has been painting seriously for the past year after back problems saw him cut back on other work commitments.
Until recently, Dhaenens specialised in painting wall murals in children’s rooms and at schools, but now finds that too physically taxing.
“I’m not young anymore so decided to do more painting on canvas,” he says, adding that he recently sold two works, each measuring 70cm x 80cm, for R1 500 each to a neighbour.
He would love to see his work get more exposure, and be featured at an exhibition some day.
“I’m not a rich man, so affording a show in a gallery is a big ‘no’. I don’t have a car and I can’t even permit myself a laptop, which is such an important tool for networking,” he adds.
The Musgrave resident, a self-taught artist, first picked up a paint brush when he was a 14-year-old in Belgium, and recalls earning second place in an international competition in Japan in his teens.
He has painted 40 works in the past year, measuring from one to three metres in height, having started with themes related to wildlife, then landscapes and, more recently, modern art.
“I have 25 to 30 canavasses in the house at the moment, and I am now turning my attention to cartooning,” he says.
Dhaenens has drawn many cartoons over the years and has now started work on a cartoon book with a zombielike story. “It is all in my head as to where the story goes, but the book will be along the lines of Belgum’s famous Tintin books by Herge,” he says.