David Thuku in his studio
Portraits Africa exhibition planning committee at their first meeting in Nairobi, Kenya on October 23rd, 2015
David is a busy and productive artist who creates paintings, drawings, portraits on commission, 3D assemblages, and murals.
He’d just arrived at the cyber café after completing a commercial mural project, and although he didn’t have photos from that day’s labors, he sent examples of two doors he’d painted for another project, saying, “I was asked to come up with images that suggest ‘ladies’ and ‘gents’ without the usual writing.” He opted to use an ancient Egyptian theme with a “Thuku twist.”
David Thuku commissioned door designs
David Thuku door design
self-portrait, David Thuku
Of his portrait art, David Thuku says that his self-portrait pencil rendering is one of his favorites so far.
While I found another of his portraits reminded me of the Mona Lisa, of which David Thuku said, “He he he, sure, I felt a monalisa.ish effect after painting that one! I love it because when I painted it, I was experimenting on quick oil portraits on different unconventional oily surfaces…this is on paper and it’s one of the few that was successful…timed for 2 strict hours…between 12 midnight and 2 a.m. I love pushing myself to extremes.”
David likes to place restrictions on his drawing, paintings, sketches and personal studies in order to challenge himself. To make himself more resourceful and to keep in practice for when the right time comes. So as not to be “freaked out” when he gets a short notice commission from a client–saying, “you don’t wanna tell them it aint possible. right?”
The second portrait painting we talked about is titled THE LITTLE RED BOOK, the artist described it as, “dear to me,” saying that he loved the pose–“It was modeled by a friend and I love it because of the story it represents…everyone gets a different story after seeing it.”
THE LITTLE RED NOTEBOOK, David Thuku
“The book is the basis of the whole story. I consider myself an anatomist…every whitty detail or process is important to me…the painting is about the small literatures that everybody has and after reading they take you on a reflective meditative journey, either self-written or a favorite publication.”
And David loves to read. “I love literature in all its representation and definition –poetry….and any good fiction,” and “someone keeps describing my paintings as visual poetry.”
In Between, David Thuku
Casting the Dice, David Thuku
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