The Hay Wain by John Constable — that painting of a cart loaded with hay being trundled across a ford — is the epitome of rural nostalgia and is endlessly reproduced.

It is indeed a great painting with its superb composition, colour and technical fluency. But it is probably most loved for the warm feelings it arouses of everything being right with the world while such honest yeomen know their place.

Painted in 1821, this tranquil scene overlooks the harsh reality of life on the farm. But in spite of that it does tug at something that makes us yearn for simpler, more ordered times.

And when Constable himself was simpler, he was even better.

The Hay Wain is set in the Stour Valley, in East Anglia, around 70 miles (112 km) north east of London, where the artist was born and it is his little oil sketches of landscapes and cloud studies in that area that are his real masterworks.

Google them and see what I mean. Revel in the freedom and vigour of these small paintings; the economy of Constable’s brushstrokes and his ability to capture each subtle shift of light and colour.

Their vitality

The paintings were made on the spot as he knelt in all weathers with boards, thick home-made papers or scraps of canvas balanced on the lid of his paintbox. Each is around 18cm by 28cm (compared with his 180cm studio set pieces, like The Hay Wain; his famed ‘six footers’ for Royal Academy shows) yet their vitality makes them an example to any painter and particularly to those who aspire to one of the great disciplines of art — landscape.

It is an example that the Kenyan artist Coster Ojwang’ has taken to heart, as could be seen in his recent exhibition at the Village Market, in Nairobi.

Typical was The Yellow Path, a 36cm by 26cm study of a track winding through a copse; the yellow set off perfectly by the richest blue shadows against looming trees that I have ever seen. A lush mix of cerulean and purple with a touch of white, they framed the painting and harnessed its energy.

The Yellow Path, by Coster Ojwang'. PHOTO | FRANK WHALLEY

Given that Ojwang’s drawing is accurate ensuring the structure underpinning his landscapes is sound, much of the enjoyment of the exhibition hinged on the artist’s interpretation of the moods of a scene; the volume of clouds, the play of shadows and most of all his ability to project colours we might neither expect nor otherwise see.

Whether that combination of bright yellow path and rich blue shadow existed in reality or whether Ojwang’ was playing with his palette — when in doubt go for the complementaries — is really neither here nor there; he saw those colours in his mind’s eye and that for me is enough. After all we did not stand next to Constable when he painted along the Stour yet we gratefully accept his interpretation of reality.

In other telling studies, such as Under the Pink Sky, Ojwang’ recorded fields of different crops across an expanse of farmland; a glorious crazy quilt of colours. Are sorghum, maize, sugarcane or whatever, really that red, so pale a blue or such a strong yellow? Do these things all flower at the same time?

They do for Ojwang’, who glimpsed them as he travelled between his Nairobi studio and his Western home.

Sometimes he stopped and wandered off the road and came across the snaking paths and woods he loves to paint, and takes more time to consider the patchwork fields. He intensifies their colours to create lyrical kaleidoscopes that honour the splendour of the seasons. When he is able to sustain the freedom of his smaller works across a larger canvas, the results can be spectacular, witness The Viewpoint; the floor of the Rift Valley seen from the well known stop on the road to Naivasha.

It was in a few of the larger studio paintings, however, that while his colours remained vibrant and enticing a few awkward mannerisms crept in; slick stylisations that created a stiffness absent in his instinctive smaller pieces. In those carefree studies, eloquent and seemingly effortless, it is as though Ojwang’ is deconstructing one reality to create another. His own.

In these carefree studies, eloquent and seemingly effortless, it is as though Ojwang’ is deconstructing one reality to create another. His own.