Masai Painting

Acrylic and charcoal on gallery wrapped canvas. My newest painting "Masai" came from a heavily underpainted ground with many marks and colours, however the paint layers were quite thin and exposed even more layers underneath them. To create a series title "Nomad" has been on my list for a while now. The word Nomad conjures up images of freedom, space, and movement. It does not always mean reclusive or alone, and with this work I wanted to explore Nomad in a tribal sense, part of a greater whole and attempted this with patterns and groupings and colour and balance to express this. Fluorescent pink is juxtaposed with muddy yellow brown and tinted teal, violet and cobalt blue. Heavy charcoal marks enhance certains shapes but not others, and appear randomly to give the piece some structure. As a childy in Kenya, we sometimes encountered the Masai tribe near my grandparents home in Kilifi. I was entranced by their striking appearance, colorful clothing and the movements of their dance, and their semi-nomadic lifestyle. This painting reflects my interpretation of my memories of the Masai people.