Vivien Wallis takes on the crow invasion one brushstroke at a time

In Hong Kong, she explored Chinese painting, focusing on human figures, nudes, and floral motifs. Her muse visited her in patches of time.

She moved back to Kenya seven years ago, viewing it as the final chapter of a well-lived corporate life, during which she worked as an executive coach, a personal coach, and a jack-of-all-trades. Her retirement years would see her attend Slade Summer School in England to refine the rough edges of her unpolished art career.

One day, Vivien was visited by Carol Lees, the owner of One-Off Art Gallery, at her studio.

“When she looked at my work, she asked me a big question: ‘Do you want to be a painter or do you want to be an artist?’”

Vivien asked her what this meant, and in response, Carol said,

“A painter paints pretty pictures, and there is nothing wrong with painting life in its aesthetic form. But if you want to be an artist, you paint something that has meaning to you.”

The conversation spurred her into a project that addresses an urgent problem on the Kenyan coast: the spread of crows.

“The crows are a huge issue at the coast. It is a particular type of crow called the Indian House Crow, which was imported into Kenya from India. Initially brought in to scavenge and clean the environment, the crows have now become an invasive species. They are rapidly wiping out the small indigenous birds. You barely see any little birds anymore. They make noise, they spread disease, and they are single-handedly outsmarting everyone in an effort just to survive,” she says.

The war against invasive crows led Vivien to create a series of works dedicated to this cause, which will be showcased at the One-Off Art Gallery from September 27, 2025.

Mainly in oil on canvas, the series makes an expressive debut in addressing the rising problem of Indian House Crows and is titled Predator or Victim.

“At the moment, the problem is largely a coastal one, but the birds are slowly progressing inland. The last sighting of the invasive Indian House Crow was reported in Voi. If they reach Nairobi, we will have a major problem on our hands. My exhibition aims to raise not only funds but also awareness of what I consider a problem that has been neglected for far too long.”

In a sense, Predator or Victim might just be the most prolific of Vivien’s different careers, because here she is not expecting a paycheck at the end of the month but rather personal fulfilment, a learning experience, and fewer crows in her backyard.

At the beginning of her art journey, she managed to float between the corporate world and art, with watercolours as her primary medium. It wasn’t until a year ago that she shifted to oil on canvas.

Her grayscale paintings in near-thumbnail sizes reflect her growth as an artist. Oil painting, however, has become her primary preference because it allows her to layer colours and evoke a variety of textures.

“For an artist eager to drive the crows from her own backyard, my paintings in Predator or Victim are modest yet reveal a sharp command of light and colour. My wide palette and confident use of different media suggest that I paint from lived experience, something that comes through naturally in my recent work,” she says.

At 81, the kind of passion Vivien brings to her art is admirable, and time doesn’t seem to slow her down. She bears no regrets about returning to art after all these years.

“In my corporate career, I loved the work but hated the politics. Working for a big company involved a lot of politics, which I loathed because I was the only woman and didn’t have a crowd I could identify with. I stayed on because I wanted to save money until I reached a point where I didn’t need to do it anymore. I believed in what I was doing, but I didn’t enjoy it at the time. I achieved what I wanted, which was financial freedom. It wasn’t the right moment in my life to be a full-time artist. When I settled down here (in Malindi) and decided to paint more, I began to understand painting in ways I hadn’t before. I find myself a student again. It feels like a new career, and I love doing it.”

Historically, Vivien draws inspiration from the British artist J.M.W. Turner, who lived over a century ago. Her work also carries echoes of Monet’s impressionism, particularly his ability to paint lived experiences, a quality that shapes her current practice. Closer to home, Florence Wangui and Beatrice Wanjiku have left lasting impressions on her, not only as fellow artists but also as influences in her role as a private collector.

She believes her latest work mirrors an important issue of environmental conservation in Kenya.

Predator or Victim, in its wry irony, places the Indian House Crow at its centre. The collection of 40 works consumed much of Vivien’s social life, but for her, art is not a pastime; it is a professional craft that must be done.

Rather than portraying the crows antagonistically, she reflects on them as fellow survivors—all of us eating from the same dish—where sharing remains the overlooked nuance. The series explores the bird as muse in layered shades of colour, some modest and others striking.

Each brushstroke offers more of the artist herself than of her subject. One might almost mistake it for a project carved from stone and marble rather than painted in oils, so deeply does it embody hungered contentment.

In some works, the crows cluster around a dish much like we do; in others, they take flight; and in still others, they linger by the beach, against the Malindi backdrop where Vivien lives.

What keeps an 81-year-old artist going?

“I wake up every morning feeling excited because I have things to do. This is a new career for me, and so I am excited. Did you know that across the world, less than one per cent of the human population gets to experience their 77th birthday? I feel so blessed every morning, living in this beautiful country and doing something I love. I believe that we have to keep on learning and growing until the end.”

In her eyes, the art world has evolved.

“The things people paint about change. The styles they paint in change. The way art sells changes. The art world changes. The position of African art is growing, the prices of African and Kenyan art are increasing, but compared to world prices, they are still not so high.”

The exhibition runs until October 18, 2025.

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