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Acrylics and mixed media on canvas
22″ × 14″
Location: Amai, Delta state, Nigeria, West Africa.

This is a market scene as I saw it in an old West African village. The driver had stopped here to buy fruits to eat during our journey. It had drizzled lightly very early that morning, creating a deep and dark contrast between the old red, muddy weather beaten road, the old market and the surrounding vegetation.

The tropical morning sun was fiercely trying to drive the remaining rain clouds and dry out the damp road. The humid clear air filled my lungs as I took a deep breath and closed my eyes after taking it all in…

This scene stuck with me for a very long time and in the end , I just had to paint it. This inspiration was however challenged by the dominance of the red earth in the scene which was out of my comfort zone. This made me hesitate to do it but, when I eventually got the courage to, it set me free from the norm and built the frame work for my later work with landscapes, textural art and mixed media.

I had lots of fun with this, here I used, brushes, finger painting, improvised pallete knives, delibrately cracking part of the work to give the market an aged look. I even dribbled paint on it (Jackson Pollock style), something that I didn’t do in any other previous painting. It was really fun and I enjoyed every minute of it.

THE FOLLOWING GROUPS FOUND THIS PIECE WORTHY OF RECOGNITION: