Art-ist

Stefan Oosthuizen

AA happy incident, paired with the quest for fine art on a budget, sent self-proclaimed creative soul Stefan Oosthuizen on a journey to becoming an artist to watch in Namibia. For the past four years he has been experimenting with different techniques in search of a solution to getting pastel to stick to canvas. Stefan required a larger blank space to spew his creativity onto, and the local drawing paper supply simply didn’t cut it. Eventually, after trials and tribulations, he stumbled upon the humble clothing iron. By layering, burning, removing and reapplying the pastels, candle wax and iron a remarkable depth becomes tangible in Stefan’s artwork. Just like the artwork, the artist isn’t one-dimensional.

Growing up in Swakopmund, Stefan found himself doodling in the back of his school books at a young age. He was definitely born with a creative streak, he says. His undergraduate studies in multimedia design drew him further away from putting brush to paper as his creative practice became increasingly digital. After working in the advertising industry in his early career as a graphic designer and art director, a departure to pursue freelance photography eventually led Stefan back to the fine, illustrative arts. He had a deep desire to fill his immediate space with impactful artwork, and decided to create art first and foremost for himself.

While an air of imposter-syndrome is present in all of us, Stefan truly loves the final product of his labour, and laborious it is. The artist says that while he has a knack for it, getting something to work, to look the way he envisions, takes a lot of fine-tuning. Colouring outside the lines is his favourite part. He explains that his process involves laying out the foundation and then deconstructing it as he builds the piece in layers and perspective. With his clothing iron Stefan smoothes and blurs out the borders, softening yet intensifying the subjects. He then keeps the artwork in his space and truly enjoys it before deciding whether to sell it.

Considering his fresh take on artistic techniques and abstract aesthetic, Stefan ought to have featured in a local exhibition by now. He says that while it would surely be a great honour, he is fond of the one-on-one interactions at markets and via Instagram sales. Stefan can’t bear the thought of someone else selling his art, he wants to understand what draws a viewer to it, share the inspiration and passion for beautiful paintings.

“I’m artsy-fartsy but think about it with a business brain as well. If you can find your audience and price your art appropriately, people will buy your art,” says Stefan. During lockdown, his art paid for groceries. But this is not a fable about a struggling artist – he is a photographer and graphic designer by day and an artist by night. Stefan’s studio comprises a wooden kitchen table, where he spends late nights crafting a candle wax, acryl, pastel and ironburnt concoction.

There’s no telling which weird and wonderful technique and colour palette he will conjure up next!

Charene Labuschagne