Self-taught artist now paints for the future

Idi Basengo, a self-taught artist, works with pencil on paper, and also uses water and oil paints with paintbrush on canvas to paint portraits of respected world figures from Mahatma Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela to President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and sports personalities like US basketball star LeBron James. PHOTO | MOSES GAHIGI | NMG

As a child, Idi Basengo used to imagine the face of a mother he never saw and would draw it in the dust.

His mother died when he was an infant and he had never seen a photo of her. So the images he drew were purely from his imagination.