TAKE 5 with Eddy Ochieng

Eddy Ochieng, a hyper realist artist. PHOTO | COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • I use oil paints on canvas and employ a technique widely known as hyper realism or photo realism.
  • I hope to contribute to the world’s knowledge about hyperrealism by creating awareness of what my work is all about.
  • You don’t have to go to school to be a good artist. This is a skill that can be acquired through practice.

Eddy, 24, is a hyper realist artist, based at the Karen Village. His work entails capturing the world as it is, his source of inspiration nature. His specialty is human figures and portraits. Eddy takes a keen interest in the diversity there is in people, from skill, character, age, gender, race, religion, political affiliation and culture. “These aspects are like a network of warps and wefts intertwined together to form an aerial view that appears as a beautiful fabric,” he says.

1. How would you describe your art and where can we find it? What inspired the painting you are sitting in front of?

My work entails capturing the world as it is. I use oil paints on canvas and employ a technique widely known as hyper realism or photo realism, where I represent the subject in consideration as is given. I often call it the mirror effect.

You can find my work at my studio, Village Studio 7, located in Karen, towards Ngong, just about 100 metres after Shade Hotel. I also have an online platform on Instagram (@eddybeuer) where my work can be found as well.

The painting I’m sitting in front of is titled ‘The eyes have it’. It features an Aboriginal elder, an Australian native – Australian natives are black. I thought it necessary to let people have a glimpse of this amazing history, amazing because Australia is predominantly white.

2. What do you hope to accomplish with art? Is it your sole career and are therefore living off it?
What I hope to accomplish with my art is to communicate with anyone that engages with my work. I hope to contribute to the world’s knowledge about hyperrealism by creating awareness of what my work is all about, how it looks like and what conversations around my work contribute to the national and/or international discourse. Yes, art is what I do for a living.

3. Do you have to take classes to be a good artist, particularly with painting and realist art?
No, you don’t have to go to school to be a good artist. This is a skill that can be acquired through practice and generating sound content that the world out there can resonate with.

4.Who are some of your favourite local and international contemporary artists?
Some of my favourite local artists are Moses Wanjuki and Clevers Odhiambo. Their styles are so realistic - I pick quite a lot from them. Internationally, there’s Philip Barlow from South Africa and Roberto Bernadi, who is Italian.

5. Do you have a favourite painting? What are you working on next?
I do have that one painting that I keep going back to. It is titled ‘Crystal clear’. It is a painting of a face with water trickling down it. I am doing a series of this nature, so this is what I am occupied with at the moment.