South Sudanese artist paints idyllic scenes of rural life

Stephen Lobalu is a South Sudanese artist whose light-filled paintings are currently covering nearly all the walls at Banana Hill Art Gallery through the weekend.

His exhibition includes almost 80 paintings in acrylics on canvas and another 20 water colors on paper, all of which reflect his show’s title, ‘Art as Culture.’

Painted in the past two years while Lobalu was still living in between Juba and his home village of Chukudum near his country’s border with Uganda, his works transcend the ugly stereotypes that we often see in the media of the South Sudan which has seen more than 30 years of civil war.

He paints idyllic portraits of village life, including everything from mothers grinding and pounding maize to men building what he calls an ‘African Bungalow’ to young men and boys herding calves, sheep and goats.

His works reflect the everyday lives of hard-working peasants, be they women selling their fruits and vegetables on market day, wives cooking their families’ evening meal or a young mother breastfeeding her newborn child.

Not that most of his exhibition is about the 24/7 working lives of African women; but in fact, his boys play football and the men sit leisurely and smoke.

Nonetheless, Lobalu’s show doesn’t really reflect a gender bias since everyone in his village is somehow busy.

In one painting a boy carries home freshly-caught fish; in another, a young girl irons clothes on flat ground while in another, a woman is out in her field planting the next season’s crop. On another canvas, a man works behind a sewing machine tailoring clothes for his rural community.

There’s a dignity reflected in his portrayals of South Sudanese working people; yet after all the stories we’ve heard about the strife and civil wars in his country, one can’t help wondering if Lobalu is painting rosy pictures that derive more from his memory and imagination than from the current realities of South Sudanese people’s lives.

Either way, he paints lovely pastoral scenes that leave no doubt that he’s a serious student of fine art, first at the University of Sudan in Khartoum (from 1982-1986) and later at Juba University where he got his bachelor’s of fine art degree.

In between, he came to Kenya where he lived quietly for nearly 20 years.

“I left during the [first] civil war which went from 1983 to 2005. But then I went home in 2006 and only came back to Kenya late last year to prepare for this exhibition,” said the artist who added that the year he returned home, there were preparations already being made for the creation of South Sudan.

“I was asked to design the first paper money for South Sudan shortly after my return,” Lobalu said.

Keen not to create controversial imagery, his design for the South Sudanese pound was of buffalo standing in their natural habitat.

The new money was very popular but since then his design was replaced with the portrait of John Garang, the late SPLA leader who waged a guerrilla war for Sudan’s autonomy and independence from the north.

Some of Lobalu’s most elegant paintings are his landscapes and images of grazing wildlife and domestic animals. His blending of luminous colors is especially striking when it comes to his atmospherics.

For whether he paints dawn or dusk, stormy or sunny days, his art exudes an ambience that makes one hope his country will attain its independence sooner than later.

One other reason art lovers might want to stop by Banana Hill Gallery this weekend is because Lobalu’s art is affordable in that his paintings range from KSh30,000 down to KSh10,000.

So especially in light of the quality of his works, his art is undoubtedly a bargain.

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