Oil paint with Paul, Sawaya and key strokes from Slyvia Belfiore

By Sanaa & Culture

'Beautiful thorn' by Paul
Nduguru oil on canvas

Chord to fingers, melodies bleed out as ears connect sound to sentiment. Silvia Belfiore a concert pianist native to Italy was with us in Dar es Salaam. Inside Vijana Vipaji Foundation headquarters in Oysterbay, DSM on the 14th of May from around 7:30pm. Bending keenly to read the musical papers at the piano desk, Silvia took the crowd through ‘new sounds and perfumes of Africa’.

This was the title of her concert where she performed eight pieces by African composers. One of which was dedicated to her by composer Godwin Sadoh (Nigeria) ‘3 Moonlight Dances for Piano-1984-1993’.

Silvia Belfiore at Vipaji HQ in Dar giving
a mini concert.

I was most mesmerized by the last piece ‘Talking Drums’ by Joshua Uzoigwe meant to relay African folklore. It was beautiful to hear the piano talk like African instruments reminiscent of the drum and marimba. The distinct piano tune giving fresh light, enchanting me to a scene of deep night with familiar African lullabies.

‘Nonyana’ by Stefans Grove (South Africa) was perhaps the most abstract of the pieces. The sentiment was suspense where the clear gaps in tempo, made you search your imagination for the movie that was surely playing to this soundtrack.

'Jilted and Strong' by
Paul Nduguru oil on canvas.

Silvia is intrigued with the interpretation of classical music via African rhythms. “The wide range attention to classical music in today’s Africa is amazing and a lot of African composers place their tradition on the pentagram. African music is characterized above all by never ending metric mixtures exceptionally complex syncopation and rhythmic counterpoints: clarity and transparency are necessary for independence of lines…”

Don’t worry you’re not the only one who finds half of that sentence gibberish. Suffice to say this lady is talented. A pianoforte graduate from Conservatory of Alessandria, Italy; BA with Honors in Music from the University of Bologna, Italy; her career set off since 1986. She’s performed and taught in various parts of continent South America, North America, Europe & Africa.

Kofia by Mac Sawaya oil on canvas

On this night however it wasn’t only Silvia who entertained us, we as well through the gallery at Vipaji got to see new works from fine artists Paul Nduguru and Mac Sawaya. Here both artists used oil on canvas on all their pieces under the theme ‘delightful tales’.

Their styles though realist veer in two different directions. Paul’s paintings at this exhibition had the realist thread in that you could identify in form, relating to real objects the main subjects he painted. However his backgrounds and times his rendition of these main subjects slipped to abstract realms where in some works harsh lines are present ‘weather’ and others fluidity is portrayed ‘jilted and strong’.
In Paul’s works it’s always charming to notice his fluid backgrounds which seem to be merging in themselves like a mist with shadows of real figures. No doubt this man has a way with paint, a way with telling a layered story with seeming simple subjects.

'Ngoma' by Mac Sawaya oil on canvas  in
the exhibition 'delightful tales  at Vipaji recently.

Sawaya’s works on the other hand offered more distinction in background, with clear story lines in subjects. His style which I’m coining as ‘spilled paint’ was most intriguing to notice. Like in ‘Ngoma’ where in some respect one would think the painting isn’t finished. As you note a face with no distinction of nose or eye save for differing shades of what looks like spilled paint. I enjoyed most the works with this ‘spilled paint’ style compared to the pieces in total realist style.

Paul is an experienced visual artist with 24 years experience under his belt and his company ‘Alama Art & Media Production Ltd’. Mac Sawaya is a High School Art and Biology teacher with a BA in Education specific to Fine Art from University of DSM.