From hockey pitches to studio spaces, Simhle Belinda Plaatjies channels her energy and experience into art that captures both movement and stillness. Okechukwu Uwaezuoke writes
Dusk was settling over Victoria Island on Saturday, December 13, when Simhle Belinda Plaatjies arrived at one of the four venues of the month-long ARTFrikanity Art Festival in Lagos. She was in the company of Nonka Mbonambi, another South African artist; Tracy-Lee Rosslind, host of the African Fashion & Arts Awards (AFAA) in Abuja; and Lebo Moroe, wife of South Africa’s Consul General in Lagos, Bobby Moroe. It was not a grand entrance, yet it drew notice all the same.
Plaatjies did not announce herself. She didn’t need to. Poised and cheerful, she smiled warmly at those she passed, drawing attention without seeking it. There was a quiet confidence in her manner, free from the sharp edges often associated with public figures accustomed to scrutiny. She appeared fully present, attentive, and unhurried—a subtle composure that spoke as loudly as any gesture.
Her outfit spoke for itself. The bright pink dress, dotted with bold blue circles, struck a playful note without ever feeling theatrical. A bow at the neckline and a softly gathered hem gave the silhouette a light, buoyant elegance. Pink statement earrings framed her face, while a vivid yellow clutch added a touch of surprise, hinting that seriousness and joy could coexist effortlessly.
Her hair, intricately braided and swept into a sculptural updo, carried a quiet sense of structure. Minimal, natural make-up allowed her expression to remain the focus. Behind her, large sculptures and framed artworks depicting stylised figures—dancers frozen mid-gesture—lined the space, echoing her own relationship with movement and form. Plaatjies seemed entirely at ease, as if the gallery were less a venue and more an extension of her own rhythm.
For years, the 31-year-old South African has been defined by motion. Competitive hockey, where reflex and stamina rule. Fitness work honed by discipline. Television spaces shaped by timing, posture, and presence. Speed and visibility have long marked her public life. What often goes unnoticed, however, is her deliberate embrace of stillness.
Art did not arrive early or announce itself as destiny. There were no childhood easels or tales of precocious talent. Instead, it came quietly during the 2020 lockdown, when the familiar rhythms of professional sport were suspended. In that pause, Plaatjies discovered something essential. “Art became serious when it became sanctuary,” she says. “It wasn’t just something to do. It was somewhere to go.”
What began as a refuge soon took shape as practice. The canvas became a space for reflection, a way to process disorder and find clarity. “After my career in hockey,” she reflects, “the canvas gave me room for healing and self-discovery. It became the language through which I translate the world’s chaos into peace.” Art was no longer optional; it had become necessary—a lived rhythm linking creativity and wellness.
Despite the quiet of the studio, Plaatjies’s work demands endurance. The habits shaped by elite sport—repetition, stamina, focus—have carried over seamlessly into her artistic practice. She favours large-scale charcoal and pastel portraits, pieces that require both physical engagement and conceptual precision. “The discipline of the athlete is the discipline of the artist,” she says. “These works demand commitment. You don’t finish them unless you stay with the process.”
At times, the creative process mirrors competition. “There are moments when I have to dig deep into my last reserves of energy,” she admits, “like when there’s only ten minutes left on the clock.” Each mark is deliberate, charged with intent. While the subjects may lean toward the spiritual or ethereal, the body remains fully engaged in their making.
Her environment has shaped her work. Cape Town, where she grew up, offered early lessons in visual poetry: mountains pressing against the sky, the ocean insisting on scale. “Cape Town grounded me,” she recalls. “I was surrounded by family and a landscape that teaches humility.” That sense of vastness, tempered by intimacy, continues to linger in her art.
Johannesburg came later, bringing a different rhythm. Where Cape Town offered grounding, Johannesburg delivered velocity—migration, ambition, reinvention. “Joburg gave me the hustle and the texture,” she says. “I explored many different aspects of myself there.” Her art now carries both cities within it: the lyricism of Cape Town rendered with the fire of Johannesburg.
In a life so often shaped by visibility, the studio functions as a retreat rather than a stage. Sport and media are public performances, governed by projection and scrutiny. The studio operates on a different rhythm. “Sport and media are the public performance,” Plaatjies says. “Art is the private communion.” Only once a piece is complete does it turn outward. “Once the work is finished,” she adds, “it becomes intentional communication—a visual tool to spark reflection and solace in the viewer.”
That inward turn is especially potent for a young woman whose image is often mediated by others. “The camera owns the narrative,” she notes. On the canvas, she reclaims it. “My art is my ultimate act of authorship. I own the lens.” Her portraits—particularly those of African women and deities—are meditations on power rather than surface beauty. “They’re about inherent strength,” she insists, “not just aesthetics.”
New works emerge intuitively, as sensations or what she calls “ancestral echoes.” “It’s like an instruction—to capture a particular spirit or truth about the African narrative,” she explains. Creation becomes translation: the invisible made tangible, personal growth braided with collective memory.
Looking ahead, Plaatjies defines her ambition by impact rather than style. “I’m becoming the artist who bridges art and wellness globally,” she says. She hopes to shift focus from what art is to what it does—how it heals, anchors, and empowers, encouraging the next generation of African creators to claim their truth without apology.
At ARTFrikanity, amid the hum of conversation and curatorial debate, Plaatjies embodied that ethos. In a culture obsessed with surfaces and speed, her practice insists on depth. Her art does not shout; it listens. And in that listening lies its quiet, persuasive power.
