Fanele Sibanda is a British contemporary artist based in the tranquil village
of Sittingbourne, Kent [The Garden of England].
Fanele was born in Rhodesia- now Zimbabwe. He grew up in the
countryside in Zimbabwe where he spent most of his time in the vast
Savanna landscapes, herding his father’s cattle and interacting with
wildlife and spectacular landscapes, such as the savanna plains,
mountains, hanging Castle Kopjes, iDwalas, rivers e.t.c. Most of Fanele’s
artworks are cinematic depictions of real-life encounters and they tell a
story of those encounters. His paintings not only carry the soul of sceneries,
wildlife or peoples, but they invite you to feel, part of the story. He uses
watercolour media with a poetic licence on his technique. The collection of
wooden and soft stone sculptures are unique and one of a kind.
The artist inherited the talent of art from his late father, Phillip M Sibanda
who told him of a story of how at the age of about 19 he presented one of
his drawings to the Queen Mother when the Royal Family visited the then
Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in the late 1940s. Fanele has also
learnt a lot from 2 of the most renowned British Watercolour Artists- Oliver
Pyle and Paul Clark. He also attributes some of his abstract works to the
inspirations of Wassily Kandinsky.