First Solo Exhibition - the first of many more

I felt quite fulfilled at the opening of my solo exhibition, I Said No featuring mainly works created during the COVID-19 lockdown in Port Harcourt. I believe this is a watershed moment in my transition from years of practice as a HR practitioner to Fine Art. The body of work highlights contemporary issues of gender-based violence, police brutality, discrimination and rape and the ability of the human spirit to rise above them. From the activism of I Said No to the bright, happier paintings of Hope and Celebration, the exhibition is located in the luscious greenery of Marley & Blue, a bespoke, cozy Port Harcourt coffee shop right in the heart of GRA phase 2. 

Some pictures from the opening evening.

 

 

 

 

Hope: We Shall Celebrate Again

36 x 36 inches. 2020

I Said No - no. 4

From the I SAID NO series. 36 x 36 inches. Oil on Canvas. 2020

Hope : We Shall Overcome

24 x 24 inches. Oil on Canvas. 2020

A Brighter Day

 

24 x 24 " Oil on canvas 2020

Amina

Painting of a young girl at a pottery settlement on the outskirts of Abuja Nigeria.

Amina. Oil on canvas. 24 x 24

Sad times - George Floyd and the Riots

The recent death of George Floyd and the USA riots made me very very sad. Social media brought the injustice, the callousness and the racism straight into our living rooms, into our bedrooms all around the world and it was a very sorry sight. This 'angoisse' led to the creation of this painting, 'He Can't Breathe'. The body gesture of my model shows the despair and hopelessness of our times. We should not be fighting these same battles, decades and centuries after. Black Lives Matter.

He Can't Breathe - Oil on canvas 24 x 24 inches. 

Sky Portrait Artist of the Week - Weeks 2, 3 and 4

I participated again in the weekly paint along, this time painting Judge Robbie Rinder. Last week we painted Rankin the renowned photographer and the week before it was Bernardine Evaristo, award winning writer. All the paintings are oil on paper. My submissions are below:

Ranking

Bernardine Evaristo

Judge Rinder

Portrait Artist of the Week - SkyTV

I participated in yesterday's SkyTV Portrait Artist of the Week with a live sitter, Akram Khan. Akram was in his home in the UK and was being painted by Christabel Blackburn in her own home; Christabel is the winner of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2020. A lot has changed with technology and our ability to paint from where we are. Artists were invited to join in by Facebook live. The PAOTW continues next Sunday at 10 a.m. and will run for 4 weeks (lockdown special).

This is my painting at the end of the 4 hour session. Quite rough and no background painted in to tidy up the edges of his head. I will not be going back to this for now. Let's see what next week brings.

I Said No

This series was birthed and finished during the Covid-19 pandemic's sit-at-home period in Port Harcourt.

It depicts a rejection of gender discrimination, body shaming, violence, racism, unequal pay and the Corona virus.

Two of them are still available for purchase. Contact the artist for details.

I Said No - 1

I Said No - 2 SOLD

I Said No - 3

100 Day Portrait Challenge.

An artist I follow on Instagram A.J. Alper, hosted a challenge last year where participants were to draw, paint or digitally create portraits and post one a day for 100 days. This was intended to free up the creative process and develop the skills required to render an accurate portrait quickly, in the technique of 'alla prima' or what I'd call 'get it right the first time'. This technique involves good placement of features and drawing then painting with gusto, moving paint around, till you are satisfied with the finished product.

I hesitated at first, as there were so many things planned for the immediate future... where would I find the time to complete a painting in a day (an activity that usually takes me about a week of dedicated effort (interrupted by breaks for cooking, exercise and even cooling off when the weather gets too hot).

I later set a date for myself - 1st August 2019 and marked off the next 100 days on my calendar. I purchased large sheets of paper that I cut in 12 x 12 inches sheets. I knew that stretching 100 canvases would be expensive and was going to slow me down and most of what I started off painting, while I waited for friends and relatives to start the 'paint me... paint me' and 'draw me... draw me', was from the internet and therefore for practice and not sale. A lot of the reference drawings came from a Reddit community and from Sktchy (an app that is only available on iPhones and that I could only get references off when my daughter tossed an old iPhone, that died mid-challenge, my way), both platforms where people post their pictures for a painting/drawing, from Pinterest and from Wetcanvas reference pictures.

My first painting... oil on paper 12 x 12 inches.

I was dedicated to a daily painting and daily post as I got more confident...

At some point, I started drawing in pencil and had my sketchbook that had, before now, been quite blank. Pencil or charcoal sketches were my go-to portrait-a-day submissions when I ran out of time or quite literally had to draw face-down on my bed when I had a busy day and was too exhausted to even find an eraser.

My Wacom intuos tablet also came out to play during this time and I digitally inched my way through some of the days. On one of the days, it was to pay tribute to Toni Morrison. May she rest in peace.

I was proud of how I progressed, ending the challenge with these two portraits that my children were happy to acknowledge on social media *phew!*

Obviously, I did not complete this challenge in 100 days even if I posted 100 portraits at the end of the challenge. Life interfered; so did laziness. I was really glad to have AJ put out a post congratulating me as a Graduate of this challenge - I felt I had got another academic degree. He's a great guy, giving tips along the way. The challenge is still on. My people say 'mgbe onye tetere wu ututu ya' - whenever you wake up it's your own morning. So you can start the challenge and see how it goes. Look for @ajalper on instagram and you'll find details.

Thanks to A.J. Alper, to all friends, followers and family that I painted and drew during this period, to my fellow artists who gave support along the way and my followers who liked and commented on my posts, no matter how unfinished or bizarre they sometimes were. I have put all 100 of them in my Instagram stories (@oziomazart). If you are interested in purchasing any of them, let me know and I'll see if it's available for sale.

Cheers

I started this painting in July hoping to complete it before I embarked on a 100 portrait painting a day challenge on Instagram, but couldn't finish it by 1st August when I jumped on the challenge bandwagon.

The canvas was supplied by a colleague, it wasn't suitably primed and I found out after I had started - it was drinking the paint and there was no slip on the surface. I had to continue once I'd started.


I was attracted by the smooth lines and the fruity colours in the cocktail.

The finished painting - Cheers. Oil on Canvas. 24 x 24"   Sold.

Yellow Scarf

I painted this over an old painting of a boat that did not work at all.

Oil on canvas.

14 x 20

Pink Scarf

This was a joy to paint.


Oil on Paper.

12.5" x 12"

International Women's Day 2019

Two days ago, I gave myself the assignment of starting and completing a painting that had relevance to the International Women's Day 2019 #BalanceForBetter. That meant I had maximum of 48 hours to complete the painting.

I chose the painting because of the strong gestural stance of the little girl who is 'balanced' on the sandy terrain and this spoke to my need to have a reference that supports this year's theme.

Apart from minor tweaks, here is my completed painting, 'At the Beach', oil on canvas 16 x 20" advocating for balance, for gender diversity, for equal opportunities, for space to grow into womanhood.

This painting has been sold.

Postponed Elections - time to paint.

Last Saturday 16th February 2019 was supposed to be the Presidential Elections all over Nigeria. As citizens were to vote only where they had previously registered, busloads of people had moved from one part of the country to the other in order to vote for our next President. Usually there is no vehicular movement on election days so you had to be within walking distance of your polling booth (strange, yes, but a story for another day).

Anyway, we all went to bed on Friday only to wake on Saturday to the news that the elections had been postponed, nationwide to the weekend for logistics reasons! So sorry for those who had planned weddings and other ceremonial events next weekend. There has to be a plan B.

Anyway, I suddenly had a free day for painting!! There are no shops open, can't go to the hair salon... there's nowhere to go... so let's paint.

I looked in my 'studio' and sighted the unfinished alla prima open air portrait that I had put aside for a day just like this.

Update of the Work in Progress. 19.5 x 16 inches. Oil on canvas.

I'm happy with how it's progressing so far.

Portrait of my daughter.

Late last year, I started this portrait of my daughter from a phone camera photograph. I managed to complete it this week as part of my commitment to continuous uninterrupted (well, sort of...) painting in the year 2019.