Africans in Western Art

Hello everyone,

Sorry I haven't been posting for a while, working on a lot of stuff is no excuse to neglect my blog.

Did you know Africans were always painted in Western Art? Of course you didn't, neither did I. But this is very true, so many popular artists from the 16th century painted them, including Rembrandt and Carracci. Some of the Africans painted were educated, belonging-to-the-elite Africans (like the powerful Medici family, who had mixed race members who ruled states in Italy and Spain and contributed to most of the currently ruling European acristocracy) to well....slaves and "savages from the new world".

New pastel studies

I got my set of Rembrandt pastels a few months ago, but I'm just getting into using them. I'm planning a still-life, so decided to do some pastel studies of my favourite fruit, apples.

I set this apple up and did a quick sketch, using Rembrandt and Winsor and Newton soft pastels

This study was done after Deborah Bays, a wonderful pastel painter

I'm enjoying my pastels. There's so much to learn, and weirdly my style of painting in this is so different from my watercolour style. I'll keep you updated on how my journey goes.

Later, everyone.

Studying with Abiodun Olaku, legend

So one day, after much prodding by loved ones, you decide you're going to study Art. You write your letter to the Universal Studio of Art, requesting to study under the tutelage of Mr. Abiodun Olaku, whom you've heard is a great painter.

"Home Sweet Home"

"Vigil"

You meet the man, the artist. Eager to show him you know SOMETHING and you have SOME talent, you bombard him with your precious drawings, past works and pepper him with lots of theoretical questions. After all, you think you've learned from the best and have travelled the world and own a great many books. Mr. Olaku tells you (with a twinkle in his eyes) he doesn't know all this theory, and you should draw more.

A month later, when you're struggling to draw well and have started painting a bit, you wonder why Mr. Olaku doesn't tell you about values, composition and the rest. I mean, what he's teaching you isn't how it's written in all those books you bought. Then you sit behind him as he paints, listen to him as he makes a sentence (only one sentence) about your work, and realise you have just been taught Tonal Gradation, Atmosphere, Light and Shape, Colour Harmony, with that one sentence.

I could tell you about his past, and what school he went to, the number of exhibitions, the fact that Mr. Abiodun Olaku is represented by respected local and international galleries, and that his work is deemed Collectors' items internationally (I've met a British art teacher who told me about him and she had never been to Nigeria), that I googled him and found a Brazilian man waxing lyrical over his work (his fame is legendary). I could tell you that art lovers and non-art lovers have stood in front of his paintings and asked in an awed voice "I wonder how he does it". No. But I will tell you about how he takes care of his charges.

By inspiring us to bring nothing but our best to the table

By challenging us

By teaching about everything (from Socio-political issues to Football)

By introducing us to artists, old and contemporary, whom we've overlooked


By giving us a steady diet of food and supplies when we need them

By listening to us, when we are unsure of ourselves

 As you spend more time at the studio, under the mentorship of Mr. Abiodun Olaku, your goals for your art become loftier, as you spend more time watching over his shoulder, you suddenly find your heart, eye, mind and hand engaged in a way you never knew was possible. Why, you ask yourself?

Because in the presence of Greatness, Good becomes Better.