When upcoming artist Micah Aloo of Kenya sets out to paint portraits, his goal is to capture the human emotions that people tend to hide. He pays a lot of attention to the eyes and the mouth, which, he says, are “the core of expressions and mood.”

Envious is a semi-abstract portrait of a man with large ears, thinning hair and deep wrinkles on his cheeks and forehead. His eyes look to one side, and the darkness on the shadowed side of his face emphasises his pensive expression.

Aloo says he uses splashes of green, red and yellow to express different moods.

“Red highlights dangers that could be present, and green represents envy,” he says.

To bring a component of fun and exploration to an otherwise brooding image, Aloo has added texture to this mixed media painting.

The same man is portrayed in a black and white untitled oil painting on canvas. Aloo said he deliberately chose monochrome colours to keep the illustration as a “blank statement.”

“I aimed to engage the viewer to freely interpret the piece and make something of it. That is why there is no title, no specific colour and no texture,” said Aloo.

Quite different from the people portraits is a set of oil paintings of animals, on canvas.

“The animals are more to do with passion, fun and experimenting with new techniques using very thick layers of paint,” said Aloo.

One painting has a gold and white cat with blue eyes staring away from the viewer. The painting beside it is of a gorilla with a disproportionately large nose, set against a green background.

The pretty-faced cat requires some refinement in the outline, and the off-centre placement leaves a gap in one corner that feels empty. With more practice and attention to proportions, Aloo could produce some good animal portraiture.

Aloo attended art school briefly but had to drop out due to lack of funds, so he is mostly self-taught. He recently created a series of paintings for an upcoming exhibition in China.

He is also producing works for galleries and art shows in Nairobi later in the year.

Aloo’s portraits can be seen at the Royal Nairobi Golf Club.