How the paint brush earns artist a living

Anthony Kiige, a talented artist in Nairobi's Embakasi during an interview with Standard. [David Njaaga, Standard]

Deep inside a ghetto in Nairobi’s Eastlands, Anthony Kiige calmly moves his paintbrush across a canvas board, slowly but surely producing a beautiful painting of forest birds floating over a thick canopy. The painting is beautiful to say the least. That I can witness someone so down to earth meticulously produce a work of art that reminds me of the likes of the storied Van Gogh leaves me pleasantly astonished. Tony’s studio, dubbed Master Craft Interiors, is located next to his single-room house in Nairobi’s Tassia estate. It is here that the realisation that he could draw and paint dawned on him, he was still in school at the time. Today, painting has become his sole means of livelihood.