Love all things Art

Stefan Smit is fast making a name for himself in the art industry.

He recently proved to be an extraordinary artist when he exhibited at the L’Atelier Regionals held in Johannesburg. The Northcliff resident is a fine artist and an illustrator working with oil paints, pencils, water colours, charcoal, photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, spray paint and any other medium he can explore.

The local artist describes himself as a vampire hunter by night and freelance artist and illustrator by day.

Although he studied music at the Campus of Performing Arts, Smit considers art as a calling. “I love what I am doing and don’t consider what I do to be work,” said Smit.

“I work with many companies both local and abroad on projects ranging from story boards for commercials to large wall murals, album illustrations, book covers and more,” he said.

To keep the oil colours pumping through his veins, Smit gets encouraged by artists such as local faith 47 or New York-based James Jean. “I love seeing progress in my work – so the more I work the more motivated I become,” he said. To deliver the best in the industry, Smit draws inspiration from listening to good music, great artists and the occasional whisky. “The ideas for my work generally start off as a seed created from an interesting conversation with a friend or something that slowly develops over time but I find myself going through stages of being drawn toward certain things that influence my work so I think it’s constantly evolving,” he said.

The 25-year-old Johannesburg-born artist said his favourite places to see art is the Behance, Facebook and a couple of local galleries like Everard Read. Smit also stated that his favourite living artist had to be James Jean who has been an inspiration to him for the longest. For youngsters who would like to pursue art as a career, Smit advised that they should persevere and keep working toward their goal.