Being the baby in his father’s first litter of kids, Peter Elungat first learned to paint by copying the artworks of his oldest brother (Hosea who was at least a decade older than he was). He was barely out of nappies at the time.
“Art was
fascinating to me from an early age,” he tells BD Life. “I used to love reading
the Friday Nation (which my father brought home regularly) since it used
to showcase great artists like Mary Collis and Jak Katarikawe. I also found a
calendar that had their artworks in it, and I would copy their paintings,” he
says shamelessly. He hadn’t had funds to attend art school, so he literally
learned his painterly skills by emulating those artists he admired.
He
eventually made it to the Kuona Trust which had a library where he had his
first encounters with artists like Rembrandt, Michelangelo, and Caravaggio whose
hot-blooded passion so apparent in his art particularly impressed Elungat.
Kuona Is also where he met Kenyan artists like Patrick Mukabi, Richard Kimathi,
Jimnah Kimani, Michael Soi, Kyalo Justus, Maggie Otieno, and many others.
Kuona is
also where he met Carol Lees of One Off Gallery who helped him have his first
solo show at Yaya Centre in 2001. His close association with Carol and One Off,
wich morphed for ten years into RaMoMa, and back into One Off lasted until 2017
when he chose to disconnect from the gallery system altogether and strike out on
his own.
It was a
radical move on Elungat’s part, but he’d felt a strong impulse to assert his
artistic freedom and independence. Some people felt he was ungrateful for all
that One Off had done for him. But others appreciated his joining the ranks of a
myriad of struggling Kenyan artists. Either way, Elungat felt he was being true
to himself.
“There was a
proverb posted on one wall at Kuona, which I’ll never forget. It read (in
translation) ‘Be committed to the purpose that brought you here.’ His
purpose, he says, is to allow the free flow of ideas to pass through him onto
canvas.
It sounds
slightly esoteric, but actually, Elungat admits he doesn’t see himself so much
as a creator as a messenger.
In his
current exhibition at Ardhi Gallery entitled “Life Size”, one can see that
soulful sense expressed in works like ‘Echoes of the Spirit’, ‘Sound of and
Angel’, and The Biography of a Spirit. And even in the one sculpture he has in
the show, it’s entitled ‘Soul of a Tree’. Not that he aspires to express himself
as a sculptor. This five- foot by five-foot abstract work made with ‘gifted’ wire,
acacia tree branches, and baby bamboo polls evolved by serendipitous means. Now
that he has shifted his studio to his home in Kitengela, he has a garden where
he’s planted flowers and other decorative plants, lots of leafy vegetables and
spices, but also acacia trees
and bamboo. Having pruned one acacia, he saw its branches being the frame of
the work. But it was like the same process in which he paints, which is
gradually, layer by layer. That’s how the bamboo got into the act and the wire
gifted to him by a neighbour. Today it stands at the entrance of the exhibition
which includes two women artists, Olga---and Lily --- whose works occupy a
whole other wing of this vast gallery.
All of the
artist’s works in this show, apart from three which share a dark chiaroscuro
style
and are practically half the size of painting that feels quite alien to all the
rest of his works, except that Elungat’s drawings are beautiful.
Yet the show
as a whole reflects a tremendous diversity in its subject matter, while all are
painted in oil on canvas and all have never been shown in public before.
The
exhibition itself happened by serendipitous means. Both Elungat and Christine
Oguna, the co-owner of Ardhi Gallery happened to be visiting the Mukuru Artists
Collective on the same day. Elungat had already begun having artists working in
residence with him at his studio in Kitengela. And Christine had planned on
having an all-women’s exhibition but postponed it temporarily, but some of the
young women who;d planned to be in it could be good candidates for one of
Elungat; artists residencies. So they combined forces: she directed four young
women to apply to go to Kitengela, and he agreed. It’s just ending now, and all
are happy with their collaboration
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