It is hard to think of many artists in this region, apart from Mary Collis and David Roberts for whom flowers have become a major part of their practice but it is a subject supported by a long tradition.
From before the Renaissance they have been respected as both symbols (a bouquet can stand for prosperity, a single flower for death; the white lily for virginity or purity; a rose for love; and so on) and as artistic challenges in their own right.
Monet and Manet were famous for them, Renoir was a prolific painter of bouquets (not my favourite artist, incidentally; his surfaces look a little too sticky for me) while among the Post-Impressionists Van Gogh’s sunflowers and irises dance with vitality and Cezanne honed his skills with repeated flower studies.
They say if you can paint the human figure realistically you can paint anything and I think the same could hold true of flowers; like humans, offering almost infinite variety and in painting requiring an ability to capture tone, weight, form, colour and composition.
And so Ojwang’, at home and separated from his rural landscapes followed a great tradition and took inspiration from the flowers, particularly roses, he saw in the kiosks near his home and studio, on Nairobi’s Ngong Road.
