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ART & LITERATURE
KENYA INSPIRES ME TO PAINT
Mayuri Dodhia writes about Avni Shah and how her hobby became a career
wad ban blidb
decided to go to Nairobi and join the Creative Art Centre for some formal training in art. Alongside this, she also studied accountancy to please her parents who were not very keen on Avni making a career out of painting. Art is often looked upon not as a career but only as something one takes up as a hobby. After a year, though, she decided to take up art as a fulltime study.
She then joined Studio Zenium where along with other budding artists she was taught by Keith Harrington, a retired university lecturer in Fine Arts. He had greatly influenced her style in painting with watercolours, as that was his forte. Keith also helped her with her first solo exhibition at Gallery Watatu, Nairobi. Some of the critics at the exhibition told her that she should get some more basic training. Determined to do the best for herself, she went to India to train as a teacher in art education at the famous J. J. School of Art, Mumbai. On returning from India she had various solo and group exhibitions.
Maasai Beauty
HILDREN ARE OFTEN FULL OF IMAGINATION. They love variety and play very creatively. However, we tend to lose these qualities as we grow up. Avni is a rare example of a person who has still got that spirit of childhood and creativity in her heart.
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Avni grew up in Thika, a small town near Nairobi, Kenya where she spent her main years of education. Thika was a rural town and art was never taught as a subject at school but used as a means for illustrating studies, especially in sciences. However, she always enjoyed drawing and painting.
Avni presenting 'Unusual Friends' to the Mayor of Berlin
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When she was 16, she started to admire greatly her sister-in-law's paintings and wished that one day she could paint like her. This is how her interest in art started. She was always very determined in what she wanted to learn, so she
Jain Spirit December 2002 February 2003
Jain Education International 2010_03
For the last eighteen years she has been teaching art to young students from the age of 5 to "A" level. She has even organised an exhibition for 60 of her students, some of whom have continued to study for various degree courses at international universities and colleges. She feels that giving small children the knowledge of art is like giving them something they can use at any time in the future. When they are older they may want to use it as a form of relaxation or meditation to free their spirit.
Her main interest in her paintings has been the coastal scenes of Lamu and Old Town, Mombasa. She continued to paint in watercolours and did not care much for trying out other mediums. She had very little knowledge of using those or how different techniques could enhance one's work. Two years ago, as the tables turned and luck would have it, she met a local artist, Mr. Andrew who was willing to teach her all that she wanted to know about painting with acrylics and oils and all the different techniques that she could use for different subjects.
She continued to paint the coastal scenes and dhows but now tried out the newly acquired techniques and mediums. One thing that has remained constant in all her works is her eye for details and colour. She joined up with Severin Sea Lodge in Sundern, Germany, who were doing a coastal promotion of Kenya, The Kenyan Week, where she displayed 30 of her paintings.
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Unusual Friends
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