I snapped a shot of Art Premium magazine when my complimentary copy arrived in the mail from France yesterday. Inside their Contemporary African Art Issue is an artist I featured last year!
Just goes to show you that getting featured in a blog article can be a stepping stone! If you are an artist and willing to make a donation I’ll feature your work in an article that will drive lots of visitors to your website.
Lioda Conrad and Benon Lutaaya Photo: Lioda Conrad
“Guess who bought one of my works in The African Crysalists series. The very gracious man himself Benon Lutaaya! Thank you and it was a pleasure to have created this work Benon reigns in Africa. He embodies all that is true ideology within art. Benon, a Great day spent with you exchanging passion of art, thoughts and laughter,” Lioda Conrad shared these thoughts and feelings recently on her Facebook page and tweeted them from her Twitter account.
Lioda is pleased and touched by Benon’s wonderful support of her as a fellow artist. Lioda said of the transaction and sale of her portrait painting (image below) to artist and subject Benon Lutaaya–“He said he wanted to buy it because it was stunning, but also because I had something more to convey thru my art and convey an important message about Africa and the beauty of its people.”
Lioda Conrad’s mixed media portrait painting of Benon Lutaaya, titled Benon reigns in Africa
I’d gotten to know about Lioda Conrad’s portrait series via Dr. Keith McFarlane’s Portraits Africa here and when I featured her paintings in my Xposy magazine article Lioda Conrad’s Portraits of Contemporary African Artists.
Xposy magazine article with photo of Cyrus Kabiru, another of Lioda Conrad’s fellow artists and subject of her portrait paintings. View more of Cyrus Kabiru’s wearable art creations on his Pinterest page here.
Portraits Africa and EN1 PRINTS offer exclusive access to limited-edition fine-art prints from some of Africa’s best young and emerging artists.
Africa was chosen for the opportunity it offers to lower the cost of ownership of original art, and to help significantly with the financial position of these individual artists. This dual benefit is only possible because a Dollar or Euro is worth far more, in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria or South Africa, than anywhere in Europe, Canada or the United States.
The Initiation, Lynette Swanepoel, Thabo Mofutsanyane, South Africa, 100 cm x 70 cm, 2014, acrylic paints on paper
In February, we announced the launch of African Portrait Project and you can read that article here. We also published an article on unconventional portraits and included work by African artists. Read the article, The Unconventional Portrait: Moving Away From the Literal Likeness here.
The African Portrait Project has grown to include even more accomplished artists from several African countries. Many have fewer resources than most of us are accustomed to, such as cell phones only to photograph their art and to connect with the rest of the world via social media. Therefore these African artists have elected to join together in a group on Facebook to share images of their work and offer portrait commissions with the assistance of Dr. Keith McFarlane. View the Facebook page and more art here.
Dr. McFarlane’s African Portrait Project seeks to provide these African artists with an income from patrons in more affluent nations, by offering art lovers outside of Africa opportunities to commission portraits at extremely affordable prices. A win-win for all and when you participate by commissioning an artist, gives you an original fine art portrait of yourself or your family members.
Portrait III, Elias Mung’ora, Naibobi, Kenya
These commissioned portraits are real fine art, one-of-kind, and may be hyper-realistic pencil drawings on paper, an oil painting, or expressive painting in other fine art materials.
Portrait artists in Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, and other African countries will be happy to consult with you one-on-one to determine the best options for your portrait.
You can also read more details on commissioning a portrait here.
The wrinkled woman, Theopencil ( Theophilus Boateng Kwaku Sarpong ) of Accra, Ghana, Pencil on paper, 41cm x 51cm
If you have questions, or wish to find out how you can commission your first portrait, contact Dr. Keith McFarlane via email: editor@negativeentropy.com Please remember that Dr. McFarlane is based in Amsterdam, and asks you to keep in mind that Amsterdam time is about hours ahead of your time zone in the USA. Here is Dr. McFarlane’s phone number: +31 20 89 32 791
Commissioning a foreign artist for a portrait, and the artist accepting foreign commissions involves a high level of trust on both sides. Recognizing this, Dr. Keith McFarlane, scientist and owner of the Amsterdam based company Negative Entropy and the owner and creator of the ArtWorld app available on iTunes, created this commission service. He will safeguard the payment while assuring quality and delivery of the commissioned artwork, and will only take a 5% commission to cover international transaction fees, currency exchange rates, bank transfer fees and like expenses.
Africana III, Elias Mung’ora of Nairobi, Kenya, Charcoal and watercolours on ivory paper, 60cm x 84cm
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