Anatomy of a Painting

I thought I would share with you guys how I developed one of my most recent paintings.

Below is my setup, I was trying to get a good lighting position. In the foreground is my pastel box, filled with soft pastels and a few hard pastel sticks. Yep, I know it looks crazy, blame it on no space, lol.

That's my initial sketch, of the final arrangement. I wanted to know how the highlights and shadows would look. I am working on toned Winsor and Newton paper.

There's much of the painting done. It still needs a few tweaks, but I like it. 

What do you think? It's part of my series exploring my womanhood and art.

Tola Wewe: A beautiful mind

Tola Wewe is an amazing artist. He's exhibited internationally in several countries including Nigeria, USA, Germany and France. He started out as a cartoonist ( cartoonists have a special place in my heart).

"Pattern of Peace II", acrylic on canvas

"Untitled" oil on canvas

"Waiting"

"Hope Rising"

He's amazing, and I love his use of colour. Tola Wewe is one of the founding members of the Ona movement, a yoruba-based art movement. I will do more research on him, and hopefully, we may get an interview.

Antique Beauty

Hello.

Gosh, it's been a while. I've been busy and not prioritizing properly. And I do sincerely apologise. Merry Christmas, too.

In today's Art world, we talk about contemporary artists, we drop names of exhibitions we've attended, glibly. But we, Nigerians, we do something very, very wrong.

We never look back.

100 year old Olowe statue, yoruba tribe

60 year old Yoruba warrior and horse statue

65-70 year old mirror statue, Igalla tribe

80 year old Igbo-Ukwu brass vase

Before you cry "oh the fetishness of it all!", please remember you avidly watched tv shows and movies about mythological greek deities (yep, you paid money to watch an Anglicised version of Sango, in a red cape, fall in love with a human woman, defeat his half brother, ad save the world with other superheros). We know sooo much about Zeus, and are not overly worried Christmas Day used to be a pagan celebration the Catholic church appropriated. So, let's respect those who believed in other religions, because you're dreaming of going to Egypt to one day see the Pyramids and the Sphinx. Amirite?

I'm glad to say some of these came home with me, and what I learnt about their history and the people who made them came along too, and I will pass that information to my children's children, so they know they are not lost.

"...A people's relationship to their heritage is the same as the relationship of a child to its mother..." 

John Henrike Clarke


Ye me ike.

The Evolution of a Drawing

So I attempted a section of Michaelangelo's sculpture "The Pieta", I really love his works because they bring such life and emotion to sculptures.

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.

Back Again

Hello, my lovelies.
I'm sorry I disappeared for such a long time. I was working as a makeup artist on a great new film, titled "October 1". It's set in 1960, and is an social-thriller. It had a great cast and crew, and though it was gruelling, I learned a lot.

I did makeup, special effects, prop-making, set-building and even learned what storyboarding and costuming were about. This experience highlighted how much an artist and an art student can do on a film and movie set. So many career choices.

The research was awesome and I met incredible people like Kunle Afolayan (a visionary director), Yinka Edwards (Cinematographer), Mr. Pat Nebo (former art teacher and legendary production and set designer), Victor, Jide, Yinka, Mike Steve, Kulanen, Susie Q, Dotun, Jacob and Ekpo and so many more people. It was an honour working side by side with these guys.

But I'm back to the blog, and we will talk even more about Nigerian Art, and its role in the world.

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.