African Paintings and Art by John Mubiru.

Unlike most African paintings and art, Mubiru's work is influenced by his childhood. He was a born in a post colonial Africa plagued with power struggles in his native Uganda and the African continent. He later ended up settling in the United States. His time away from his homeland of Uganda has the effect of concentrating on it more in his artworks. "Africa is in transition" he says. "That is why I'm so fascinated by cultures that have stuck to our old ways of life. When I look at the Massai, Karamajongo and other nomadic African tribes, I feel a link to our simple way of life that is no more". John Mubiru’s striking tribal motifs and scenery evoke the essence of African culture and life... vibrant, colorful and alive. His use of a palette knife, blunt paint brush and thick oil application technique gives his work almost a three dimensional feel.

A Black African Art.

Batik has become a Black African Art in East and West Africa. It's the first media Mubiru took on as a young artist while leaving in exile in Kenya. With no employement for most Ugandan exiles Batik paintings he made helped him complete his education at the Kenya Polytechnic in Nairobi.

The Batik process utilizes dyes applied to cloth, cotton or silk using wax as a blocker. "I use wax as a blocker”  he says. “The paint doesn't go where the wax is. I start from light to dark dyes. I will apply lets say yellow then block the parts that I want to stay yellow with wax, then apply blue to get greens and so on." Mubiru learned this technique from exiled Ugandan artists while he was living in Kenya. By default, batik has always been an experimental art form and for a creative artist like Mubiru, the sky is the limit. He took it to the next level, with muted earth tones for instance.  One of the techniques he developed is particularly affective in a series of works inspired by ancient African art and rock paintings. The work took on a jagged series of lines, similar to cracks on a rock face.

African Oil Paintings and current works.

While Mubiru's strong figurative style and earth tone color palette draws strongly from his earlier batik style, his application of color doesn't. He mostly uses a blunt brush and palette knife applying the color in bold and often thick strokes. His light play has an amazing effect on his work, giving his subject matter a larger than life feel. Most of his paintings are now available in large gallery pieces and smaller field studies. Some select works are also available in affordable giclees and limited edition prints.