ZIMBABWE | ARTIST INTERVIEW
Artist Interview
TICHAONA NCUBE [ PHOTO: Tich the Watchman ]
[ WRITER: Andrew Muswala ] Briefly tell us about your background? Born on December 1986, in Tsholotsho a western rural area of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. I started drawing as a boy. My art interests began to emerge in drawing cattle and wildlife like the greater kudus which we would encounter during herding cattle in the bush close to the Hwange National Park boundary. I attended school and grew up in Tsholotsho and then moved to Victoria Falls in 1999 for my secondary school education at Mosi-oaTunya High School, where I had a year in an art class during my final year and I then started to pursue Art as a career in November 2002. Was introduced to the professional art industry by Sanele Dhlomo and the late Jimmy James Nkomo who had been drawing and painting in Victoria Falls. Since then, I have marketed locally and outside the country and have my works collected by both tourists and art collectors.
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TRAVEL & LEISURE | May - Aug 2021
Young and upcoming artists are often inspired by nature and in this region, specifically by the world class Victoria Falls, which is so wonderfully rich in natural beauty. I find most of my ‘brush stroke’ encouragement from the professional wildlife artist Larry Norton. Currently, I am working from a small home tent-studio and within the parameters of lockdown restrictions, I freelance as a tutor with an art safari company @Art of Africa Zimbabwe (http://www.artofafrica.co.zw/) also as an art instructor and mentor at Arts for Animals (Children in the Wilderness/Wilderness Safaris, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, Social@ arts4animals) where I hold art club workshops with high school students focussing on talent development and environmental awareness with wildlife conservation. I’ve spent most of the Covid-19 lockdown producing art works at my home studio.
