David Thuku a self portrait (left) and Aggressive Mzee by Nicholas Odhiambo (right). PHOTOS | MARGARETTA WA GACHERU
What you need to know:
In Kenya today, there are increasing numbers of artists who specialise in pencil drawing.
One only needs to check out Facebook to see how pencil art has proliferated among young Kenyans, especially in the area of portraiture.
Once upon a time, pencil art was merely seen as a form of doodling, sketching or just the first phase of creating a ‘real’ work of art.
An artist might outline his or her concept of what they planned to flesh out in the form of either a painting, sculpture or even a stained glass window as a preliminary step before a paint brush went to canvas or a knife started to carve a piece of wood or soft soap stone.
Leonardo Di Vinci
That is still the case. Nonetheless, one needs only to go online and visit the websites of Western art galleries or museums to see how highly valued the pencil sketches of artists like Leonardo di Vinci or Michelangelo or even Durer or Daumier are.
In Kenya today, there are increasing numbers of artists who specialise in pencil drawing. One only needs to check out Facebook to see how pencil art has proliferated among young Kenyans, especially in the area of portraiture.
Professional
Some of the pencil artists are professionally trained, like Nuru Bahati (who also draws with biros), Nadia Wamunyu (who often works in charcoal as well as pencil) and Paul Njihia (whose pencil caricatures are popular. He also works in oil and acrylic paints).
Many more so-called self-taught artists are emerging on the web. Most are quick to declare they have been doing pencil drawing from a very early age and still do it now since they’ve got a passion for it and the humble pencil is their preferred tool of trade.
Take for instance, an artist like Victor Opiyo from Kisumu. He’s so passionate about his style of art that his nickname is Victor Pencil!
Another self-taught pencil artist who, like Opiyo, specialises in portraiture is Seth Odhiambo who also has a nickname. He calls himself Seth Sketcher since he feels so connected to his pencil art that he likes being identified as the artist who sketches as a way of life.
47th wall
One pencil artist who took note of the fact that pencil artists are plentiful on Facebook is Robert Kuria. He felt the need to upgrade the status of pencil artists by giving them their own platform on social media where they can mingle and share their artwork online.
He calls it The 47th Wall, given that there are 47 counties in Kenya and he wants online pencil artists from all over the country to feel free to join the group.
“I thought it was one way to promote the idea of devolution in the arts,” Kuria told BD Life during the opening of an exhibition of 47th Wall artists at the Michael Joseph Centre that he recently organised with Penda Arts.
Winner
Not all the artists that exhibited at the Michael Joseph Centre showed pencil art. But one that did was Edwin Wanjiru, better known as Eddie Picaso, whose pencil art won him a first runners up award at this year’s Manjano Art Competition and Exhibition held at Village Market earlier this year.
Like many pencil artists, Picasso's drawing was a portrait patterned after a photograph. In his case, it was an image he had seen in a newspaper during the Langata Primary School land-grabbing saga. The photo was of an unnamed man who was cradling a child injured during the stampede that ensued when police came to disperse the protesting children with batons and teargas.
Photograph
Most of the pencil artists whose works I have seen do portraiture but also practice other forms of painting and drawing. For instance, Wycliffe ‘Swift’ Elegwa is best known for being a graffiti artist, but his pencil drawings are striking for their accuracy and delicate realism.
David Thuku often works in acrylic paints on canvas. He also collaborates with thespians by painting the backdrops and sets of their performance space. But his pencil work is powerful as is evident from his self-portrait which has far more emotional content than the photograph he used for inspiration.
And Willie Wambugu was once a practicing pencil artist who filled countless sketchbooks with his pencil drawings, initially of matatus but later with a wide variety of everything from hand tools and shoes to keys and leaves. Subsequently, he shifted to drawing with pen and ink, though pencil art is still dear to him.
