Paintings line the interior of a white room in a newly constructed building in Masaki, Dar es Salaam. It is an exhibition titled Hide & Seek by Veronika Rovegno, a Tanzanian who returned to her homeland in 2014, after 15 years in New York.

“I’ve been painting since I was five, but only for myself. Every time I showed people my paintings, they liked them. I wasn’t confident enough to put my work on display earlier because I paint my feelings, my experiences,” said Veronika.

This is her debut exhibition in Tanzania; she doesn’t have any formal training as a painter. She is the PR manager at Aggrey & Clifford Advertising Agency.

The work she exhibited was from September 2014 to date. “All of these were painted since I came back here, Hide & Seek is about my time here; hiding, rediscovering and rebuilding myself, and a new life. This is that phase of my life,” she said.

Her paintings are all abstract, except for 31East, 31st Street, Sometimes I miss you, which is of buildings and a night skyline in blues and yellows. Veronika says it was the view from her apartment while she was in New York.

She uses acrylics, oil, grease and sand, applied with toothbrushes, sponge, twigs and paintbrushes.

However, she has not mastered her craft as there was a lack of consistency in her work. She put up the exhibition herself, without the guidance of a curator.

“The skill of a painter is often revealed in the strength and confidence of their line, creating and delineating the various shapes in the picture,” Neil Collins, the art editor of arts-cork.com, said.

Working on a large canvas requires extra attention to the layout of a painting, as a mistake is more glaring than on a smaller one.

By May 12, three paintings had been sold, at $350, $1,000 and $3,500 respectively.