Timothy Brooke with his painting Kisima. PHOTO | MARGARETTA WA GACHERU
What you need to know:
Looking at the rest of Brooke’s one-man show, one can more easily sympathise with the woman since most of the artist’s paintings are filled with those elegant ‘atmospherics’, be they associated with panoramic skies or dry, sandy river beds or Brooke’s beloved mountain that looks different every time he decides to paint it.
Like many Kenyan artists, Timothy Brooke survives and even thrives on commissioned artworks. That means he has clients who appreciate his artistry and like the art patrons of old, want specific persons, places or things painted according to the client’s specifications. And they’re prepared to pay a pretty penny for the painting that they want.
One of his most charming paintings currently up at the One Off Gallery (where Brooke normally exhibits whenever he ventures down to Nairobi from his home perch in Nanyuki), is one such commissioned work that his client claimed did not meet her expectations.
The oil on canvas painting in question is entitled ‘Balance‘ (which seems to refer to the way the female fruit pickers in the work stretch and bend and balance as they pick the ripened mangoes from the giant trees).
What the prospective patron apparently had wanted was a work with more ‘atmospherics’ and less focus on the busy working people.
Brooke told BDLife at the opening of his month-long exhibition at One Off that he’d been fascinated by the fruit pickers who moved swiftly among the trees.
But his client had wanted more attention given to the ambiance of the terrain; or perhaps it was more of Brooke’s magnificent skies that she wanted rather than the lush and leafy green trees that fill his canvas, reflecting the farmer’s expansive Sagana estate.
Looking at the rest of Brooke’s one-man show, one can more easily sympathise with the woman since most of the artist’s paintings are filled with those elegant ‘atmospherics’, be they associated with panoramic skies or dry, sandy river beds or Brooke’s beloved mountain that looks different every time he decides to paint it.
He does have other portraits of people in his One Off show, such as the Somali askari wielding his rifle behind his back as if doing a yoga pose.
There are also graceful images of beautiful and busy Samburu women, who we see loading up their relaxing camels with what could be the women’s only worldly possessions.
But what has always been distinctive about Brooke’s art is his uncanny knack for capturing nature’s earthly nuances which one can see in both of his portraits of Mt Kenya: one is tipped at the top in a rich purple (the hue of nobility) while the other’s mountain peak is peach blended quickly with a rich ochre reddish brown until it suddenly turns deep royal blue as one’s eye runs down the mountain side.
At the same time, Brooke’s inspired ability applies to his celestial paintings which, with subtle shading, reflect varied times of day, be it ‘Early’ in the day when baby camels roam freely before the heat slows them down or “Midday [when] Clouds” start to encroach on the mountain’s peaks or even during the “Last Light’ when shadows are fast falling and all his colours turn into muted hues.
Ironically, there’s one other painting in this One Off show that doesn’t display those beautiful blends of light and colour, and it’s one that Brooke clearly likes a lot. ‘Kisima – a spring’ is a painting that’s filled with goats and camels and donkeys as well as several brightly garbed herdsmen.
The horizon and the sky in this painting is almost an afterthought for the artist who seems to be fascinated with the melee of four-legged creatures who are clearly having a good time from the watery refreshment at the local spring.
Studio window
Kisima, Sagana and Mt Kenya are all places not far from where the artist lives. In fact, Brooke says he can see the mountain through his studio window, which is one reason he creates so many colourful images of Kirinyaga.
In fact, if one could line up all of his mountain peak paintings, one might imagine that Brooke has taken a technique made famous by the French Impressionist Monet whose renowned ‘Haystacks’ series was also a study of light as it transformed one single image with each painting showing the subtle differences made depending on the time of day and the situation of the sun.
Brooke was actually born in England but came to Kenya when he was five. He went abroad at 17 and eventually got to art school. But like so many Kenyan artists, he was inspired to paint and draw from an early age.
After living, painting and traveling in Europe for many years, he returned to Kenya in 1980 from when he’s painted and exhibited ever since.
Meanwhile, One Off will be having the works of Yony Waite from next Sunday in the Gallery. Carol Lees has also curated the exhibition of Fitsum Berhe Woldelbanos which opens this Sunday at Rampel Designs off Thika Road.
