"Animal Art Unlimited" is an art studio situated in White River, South Africa, a town about 230 miles (370 km) east of Johannesburg. We use leadwood, also known as ironwood, a rare hardwood indigenous to Africa. We produce carvings and sculptures of African animals and of human busts and figures.
Our artists sculpt African animal statues and ethnic busts using an African hardwood called "leadwood" in South Africa and "ironwood" in Zimbabwe (scientific name Combretum Imberbe). The wood is so hard that Africans made blades for their hoes from it before metal became available.
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Our current eBay buyers are located on 4 continents and in 11 countries: Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Poland, Singapore, Taiwan, United Kingdom and USA.
Please note that we call large items "sculptures" and smaller items "carvings"
ANIMAL ART UNLIMITED The African Studio with Amazingly Detailed Animals
PayPal is not available in South Africa but we welcome VISA and MASTERCARD debit and credit card payments. We also accept Electronic Funds Transfers.
We ship big sculptures by airfreight and smaller carvings by South African Post Office.
Life Information on Johan Matsane
Johan carves the following items:
Elephants of all sizes
Crocodiles
Buffaloes
Born on 28 December 1978 in Kabokweni, Mpumalanga, South Africa.
His parents were overjoyed at his birth because it was the first time in the whole Matsane family that twins were born. Sadly his twin sister died after three days.
Johan attended school at Mlilo Primary in Kabokweni, which is 15km to the East of White River. He completed his primary education in 1994 and went on to Guduza Secondary School, also near Kabokweni. In his own words: “I did have some successful years at Guduza; because I keep consistency in my studies I didn’t like to change schools, because I was against nomadic life.”
He completed his secondary education at Guduza in 1998 and his hard work and discipline brought him 2 distinctions, one each in English and one in Geography. He went on to study Travel and Tourism Frontline at Damelin College in Nelspruit but had to drop out after 3 months for financial reasons.
In 2000 he was offered an apprentice job as an artist at the Animal Art Unlimited studio in White River under guidance of David Mudede who introduced him to art. His words: “At first, it was difficult to adapt to the dusty environment, but because of my strong character and willingness to learn I pulled through. Art wasn’t the job I was looking for but because of lack of job opportunities I had to give it a try and I succeeded… Art can improve one’s life because there’s (a) lot of money in there. And the government has done (a) splendid job to sponsor art centres. The negative side of it, its because it depends mostly on (foreign) tourists and… no tourist means no money for the artist!”
Johan started with hippos but it is with buffalo, crocodiles and elephants that he has made his mark. His willingness to learn is above par and the very fine details that he sculpts in his leadwood carvings bears testimony to a mind seeking perfection. Johan is a model person and a steady light for his colleagues: consistency of discipline and mood are his main character traits.
A few thoughts from Johan:
“Art was not in my blood in the first place. I learned a lot during the past four to five years… It’s challenging from the artist up to the customers. I did have the privilege to meet people from other countries because of art… I feel more comfortable when I carve and elephant because we are learning new things every day. Elephants are not the same as man. Their behaviour and social life are what motivates one to make nice elephants… I’ve learned that animals are not for meat only, we can learn something from animals and especially the need to conserve.”
Johan often uses the initials JM when he signs his art pieces.
Johan is currently working on a series of 1:10 scale of the Magnificent Seven
Elephants of the Kruger Park.
The photo on the left shows Johan sculpting Shawu, one of the greatest elephant bulls ever to have roamed the Northern part of the Kruger Park in South Africa.
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