Uncertainty and transition remain constants in human life. In the modern world, the future can often feel unclear and the way forward complex. Neethling's compositions suggest movement through layered, shifting spaces, mirroring the challenges, choices, and changes people face in their own lives. Light, shadow, depth, and form create a sense of passage and discovery, echoing both individual and collective searches for meaning and illuminating revelations.
The figures in his paintings exist in a universal sense, without gender or fixed identity. They appear as travelers in motion, engaging with their environments and moving through unfamiliar terrain. Their presence highlights the shared human journey of navigating uncertainty and discovery, reflecting the rhythm of choice, change, and the ongoing search for meaning.
His work is shaped by a deep engagement with both Eastern and Western culture. From Western traditions comes a spirit of bold self-expression and the drive to move beyond limits. From Eastern traditions comes harmony, balance, and patience. In his paintings, these perspectives merge, not as opposites, but as a shared search for meaning—an exchange that crosses cultural boundaries and speaks to a wider human story.
Nature is central to this language. Inspiration is drawn from caves, mountains, and landscapes, where time leaves its mark on form and texture. The layered folds of stone, the play of light in darkness, and the slow shaping of terrain over centuries all echo through his compositions. These natural elements embody passage, transformation, and the dialogue between shadow and illumination, grounding the pursuit of meaning in the rhythms of the earth itself.
Neethling's philosophy is rooted in lived experience. His family endured hardship, starting with little and persevering through struggle. This inheritance of resilience shapes his outlook—life is not given, it is continually built, rebuilt, and transformed. Neethling himself has faced loss and the need to start over more than once, yet each beginning became a path to deeper understanding and renewed strength. His art mirrors this journey: a visual testament to the human capacity to endure, to adapt, and to rise beyond circumstances. Through this, his work speaks to the shared human story—our tenacity, our will to overcome, and our search to become more than what life's trials would reduce us to.