Comparison To Lubaki

I have been using the works of Albert and Antoinette Lubaki to practice painting loosely, and have also been questioning why I am so attracted to the loose and intuitive style depicted in African folk Art, and I have found that though I personally have a hard time truly capturing the same looseness that African Folk Artist such as Antoinette and Albert Lubaki seem to so effortlessly depict within their work, I can still certainly recognise some similarities between us.

Both Albert and Antoinette Lubaki used watercolours to create their paintings, I have found that I also like use water colours, as well as oil paints, as I think they leave the most room for looseness and organic marks when painting. Like myself Albert and Antoinette are of West African decent, which may influence our taste and perception regarding the kind of colours, forms, shapes, and subject matter that interests or appeals to us. Finally I like to work in small to medium scale, and will rarely create a painting larger than A1 size, though going forward I would like to experiment with larger scale paintings.

Albert and Antoinette’s works are far from realistic depictions of reality, their style is naive, loose, and child like, which is something that I have often been told about my own work. That said, I personally feel that I struggle with creating loose art, and one of my painting aspirations is to develop a style that is not identical to Albert and Antoinette, but one that captures the same looseness, and organic child-like freedom that they have in their paintings. I want to continue working with paint, whilst also retaining this thread of looseness within the other mediums I work with such as embroidery, soft sculpture, and animation.

Though Albert and Antoinette Lubaki’s art was inspired by ancient African symbols, rituals, and folklore, they’re paintings also reflect the social and political changes going on in Congo at that time. Much like Albert and Antoinette Lubaki I wish to create paintings that on first glance look naive, child like and loose, but on further inspection speak to broader issues, whether that be social political or personal: not just a pretty paintings, but Art that says something!