A disabled Mitchells Plain artist who paints with his mouth says he’s moved on to the digital area and now uses a computer to draw pictures.
In 2018, the Daily Voice introduced you to confident quadriplegic Randall Wynkwart, who teaches kids in his community how to paint using their mouths.
Randall, 39, has now taken his skills to a whole new level due to the Coronavirus lockdown.
Randall, from Tafelsig, uses his mouth to hold a paintbrush, but since the lockdown, he has acquired the skill of digital painting.
GREAT OUTDOORS: Randall does landscapes
He explains he uses a device connected to his laptop camera which allows him to draw using head movement.
“I have a dot on my forehead and this controls everything happening on screen,” he explains.
“The device is light and feels like paper, and it makes contact with a tracker (a camera) attached to the top of my laptop screen and this allows me to use my head as a cursor.
“I can keep the arrow on an icon for a longer period in order to select an icon.”
Randall became a quadriplegic when he was nine years old after he fell on his head during a freak accident at school.
“I was on my way home and wanted to jump over a locked gate,” he explains.
“But when I tried jumping over, my pants got stuck and I fell, landing on my head and injuring my spinal cord.”
VISION: Randall Wynkwart of Mitchells Plain has gone high-tech with his artwork
He was left paralysed from his shoulders down and doctors gave him six months to live, but he defied the odds and will be celebrating his 40th birthday this September.
Randall now produces digital paintings mostly of the outdoors.
ARTIST: Randall Wynkwart, 39
“I love painting nature - animals, flowers, trees, mountains, the sea and so on.
“This passion keeps me busy during the lockdown, I enjoy it.”
His biggest dream is to have a gallery exhibition where he can sell his paintings.
“One day when I’ve got the opportunity, I’d love to have a whole launch of my paintings at a gallery and sell them to raise funds for my community projects,” he says.
venecia.america@inl.co.za