Percy Maimela who hails from Winterveldt, Tshwane is a Guinness World Record holder after creating the largest [25 square metre] sketch using nothing but coffee granules at Sandton City recently.
Maimela created a portrait of popular South African house DJ Black Coffee. “I usually use salt for my portraits, but since I was doing a sketch of my role model, it was befitting for me to use coffee,” said Maimela.
Born in 1985, the Pretoria self-taught artist, Maimela, discovered his love for art by accident. When he was working as a merchandiser at a retail store in 2004, he walked into the storage room and found some salt spilled on the floor. “I have always been able to draw, as I practiced art since primary school, but it was late 2015, when I decided to take it as a fulltime career,” said Maimela, who subsequently quit his job.
After taking the career as a full-time artist in 2015, Maimela’s artistic dream has flourished and in his range of collection, Maimela has moved on to produce a series of captivating paintings/drawings of politicians as well as other well-known people such as; Barrack Obama, Helen Joseph, as well as Steve Biko amongst others and most recently, Black Coffee.
He told Gauteng News that; on average a painting/drawing can take up to 4 – 8 hours. “In years to come, I would like to have three galleries and workshops to help those who need to advance their art and careers. That’s my vision.
“As a fine artist myself, I clearly understand the challenges that young artists face – and since I was raised in a township, I also understand what it’s like to try and establish yourself beyond the borders of the main metropolitan centres,” said Maimela, whose work is set out to dazzle the world.
