Celebrating women through fine art

By Kiundu Waweru

Art can be described as creation of beautiful, thought provoking works.

Walking into the exhibition room at Alliance Francaise, this description of art comes to mind thanks to the paintings on display of women in various moods, activities and time.

The exhibition, which started on March 8 and runs until March 31, celebrates the woman in line with the International Women’s Day, marked on the day the exhibition started.

Paintings by renowned painter Patrick Mukabi of nude women are some of the outstanding paintings at the exhibition.

Mukabi’s nude paintings showcase women on the ‘heavy side’ or plus size women.

"Initially, nude pictures were not allowed to be displayed publicly in Kenya," says Clara Mungai, Mukabi’s student and whose work is also exhibiting alongside her mentor, So, could Mukabi’s nude paintings mean Kenya is experiencing a culture change?"

The nude series are titled Cover Girls.

"I use real life models who have never modeled before. They must be plus size and also comfortable with who they are," he says.

The models strike a pose while Mukabi draws their sketch in series — same subject but different moods. In the paintings, he expresses the beauty of a woman.

"Women work as a barometer of a society. If you want to tell the wealth of a particular place, look at the women and children, the way they dress and behave reflects their status.

The Cover Girls in the paintings seem comfortable with themselves as the artist says they are meant to celebrate who they are. Mukabi apes paint masters like Michelangelo.

Mukabi’s paintings leave behind visible sketch outlines.

Asked why he says, "That shows that I am not perfect."

"While painting or drawing, I concentrate on positive aspects as I believe everyone has problems but we do not have the problems written all over our faces," he says. He says art works as therapy, as shown by his models. Some come with a heavy heart in the morning, saying how they are at loggerheads, say, with their husbands.

"Even though I hardly talk as I paint them, at the end of the session, they have a smile on their face. They say that having somebody to listen to them makes them feel better."

Evoke emotion

Next to the Cover Girls is the Motherhood Series, by Clara Mwangi. The series depict the nurturing nature of mothers.

The young painter seems especially passionate about the life giving nature and warmth of the mother’s breast.

In one of her painting, Ed and Mama, a woman donning a leso bends to breastfeed her child. The child stands on her two feet and stretches to get a good grip.

Clara captions her paintings with great quotes, this one by Winston Churchill reads, there is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies."

Clara says that her style is different from the norm. She mostly uses purple for her background and in some paintings, red depicts skin colour.

"A painting has to evoke an emotion from you and that is why I use different aspects," she says.

Besides Cover Girls, Mukabi has other series, Story Moja, Udaku, Mama Safi na Mama Soda Baridi. All these paintings, depict women in different spheres of life.

"Story Moja series are done on top of messages that were written by the public during an exhibition," he says.

Both artists express optimism in fine arts as more Kenyans now appreciate art more.