It is all about realistic paintings

Evarist Chikawe is a full time artist based in Dar es Salaam. Born in Dodoma 42 years ago, his work for many years has mostly been identifying his own culture and local African tradition. From Tanzania to Kenya, Italy, Denmark, German,France ,Italy and many other countries across the world his work has been exhibited.

Since he officially started working as a professional artists since 1993 , he has managed to create a network of artists across the world through exhibitions and several workshops ,making him one among the pioneer in the industry specializing in modern art.

Like many artists,Evarist knew that he had passion for art while he was still young however he faced difficulty convincing his father that he was keen on art.

“I believe I was born to be an artist but my father who was a teacher never believed that I would work as an artist and become successful. I remember how my father used to beat me because I used to draw the doors and walls of our home. My late sister however was an art lover she used to work with missionaries in Ndanda,Mtwara.She had access to painting materials such as water colours and brushes and encouraged me to draw and when she went to live independently she took me with her ,” says evarist

Apart from being a self taught artist, Evarist passed through the hands of experienced and talented artists such as Syprian Msafiri and Henry Kondi and also through workshops he has managed to become the artist he is today.

Explaining what pushes him to continue enjoying doing what he does, Evarist says it is because arts always gives him a room to do a lot of what is happening in his society.

“ It is something that comes from deep inside my heart that’s why I have been inspired by a lot of things in life that has seen me doing a number of art work inspired by everyday life experiences,” he explains.

He adds,”This has seen me changing in my career ever since I started in 2001 until today,one can openly admit that I have grown professionally over the years,doing a lot of work without worrying much about whether I will sell or not because I believe someone somewhere will appreciate what I do because I was born to do it,”

For the last sixteen years his work as an artist has transform basically from using more of brown colour in making realist paintings into using more colours and less realist paintings, “I still paint human figure but I use lots of colours and I have tried to add up other figures in my painting such as trees,birds and butterflies and other decorations.

He says the Industry has grown particular at the international lever were artist from within the country have been receiving a lot of international recognition because of their remarkable work. According to him, number of artist who have participated at the international exhibition has increased and they have been receiving a lot of recognition and respect for their wotk.

There has been a lot of appreciation also coming from within our country too as a number of people taking interest in buying art work has increased with time. According to Chikawe people spend money to buy paintings even paying in installments. “Before it was different as people didn’t have that passion to spend money to buy paintings because it wasn’t part of their culture to do so and even the price of paints were expensive making most people shun away but the case is different now since people are willing to spend their money to buy paints,” he says.

However, while there have been a number of people who are willing to spend their money to buy art work Evarist still feel that community still doesn’t value much the work of art. This has become evidently given the existing number of galleries available in the country.

“Because very few people value and recognize the work of art that is part of the reason why we even have few galleries in the country because few people are willing to invest in the business because they don’t take it to be of value. It’s unfortunate that few galleries that exist today are owned by foreigners” explains the artist.

He feels that there is need to have a permanent national gallery were artists’ work particularly those who have been in the industry for years such Lilanga and Tingatinga work can be permanently displayed to the public.

“Having a national gallery can open a new door for many artists in the country and I feel like the National Museum would be a better place to have that. Apart from showcasing our work it should be a place we can sell our art work.And as a way to encourage society to love art, its high time to have sculptures and painting in public buildings, ” he said