Fun with brush, wine and a blank canvas for beginners
Tuesday March 09 2021
A participant at the Arts & Wine event in Dar es Salaam. PHOTO | ISMAIL SABUNI | NMG
Every human being is an artist, said the late German art theorist and pedagogue Joseph Beuys. Handed a canvas, brushes and acrylic paints while sipping wine with soft music in the background, I found myself proving him right at an event dubbed Art & Wine at Olive Restaurant in Dar es Salaam.
The organiser, Leticia Waduma, worked with Collin Edwin, a full time artist who was an instructor for the participants.
Edwin provided us with blank canvases, acrylic paints and numerous brushes. Some of his paintings were on display in case someone didn’t know what to paint. However, everyone had the option of trying out ideas of their own or even seeking other sources.
One has to free their mind of clutter before embarking on painting, he advised. You have to visualise your idea.
With Edwin’s assistance, I begin painting the sky and the horizon. Halfway through I noticed a mistake.
“One never really makes a mistake on the canvas. You can always improvise.” That makes sense to me as I carry on and add more colours.
“How about a red sea with black shadows,” Edwin suggests.
A glass of wine in hand, I look at my painting and another image is materialising. An artist really does improvise. We discuss the idea again and make further adjustments. We consider adding mountains and people.
Waduma was also part of the group painting for the first time.
Lesson from the young
As I put the final touches on my work of art, a girl looks at the Maasai men and the big dots that represent stars in the sky. I learn that her name is Sarah Kassam. She and her younger sister were sharing a canvas, but they painted different pictures.
“Your stars are too perfect, that’s not how you do them,” she said.
Sarah is a pupil at Hindu Mandal Primary School and she and her sister take private art lessons.
“Let me show you.”
She took two brushes, one with white paint, and set to work on the part of my painting that was the night sky.
She had been fighting with her sister, her mother tells us. "They have to learn how to share, paying for a single canvas and asking them to split in half will also teach them how to work together.”
More people are streaming in for the event as the night gets closer. Soon the canvas and the paintings will be put away to clear the space for more food and drinks.
With our paintings in hand, we slowly vacate the premises to let the grownups who didn’t just come to play with paint have their turn.