Born in Harare, Zimbabwe, I come from a family of artists. From an early age I began stone sculpting and in 1998 I began showing them and I worked at the Cannon Peterson Art Centre and The Chapungu Sculpture Centre in Harare with over 180 stone sculpttors. I work in different types of stone such as cobalt, soap stones, black granite, serpentines, marble, sandstone and limestone. Altough stone sculpting is my main medium I also do paintings, ceramics and metal sculptures.

My inspiration comes from day to day life, dreams, imagination and the stones themselves. My sculptures are filled with human culture, wildlife, nature and feelings. These sculptures are all hand carved using chisels and hammers, chasseing combs, files and rasps, smoothed with six to fifteen water sand papers of different textures, then fired to a moderate temperature, waxed and polished for durability and to expose the natural colours that you see when stones are wet. All my sculptures are original and one offs, I work straight into the stone without having to do a model first. Only a number of sculptures that I make are created from sketches.

 

Blessing Sanyanga

©2009 BAG