Stanley Cheche, a talented visual artist based in Nairobi, started pursuing art at a very young age when he stumbled on a book that belonged to his cousin filled with caricatures. He started sketching in an attempt to imitate the caricatures and he hasn’t stopped painting to this day.
Stanley’s style of painting is very unique and this is something that caught our attention. He uses paper instead of canvas which is popularly used, and soft pastels to paint and fixes his paintings with hair spray.
“I used to keep half of my pocket money and pawn my high school shopping to make more money to afford paint, painting knives, colours and other tools. Most of the things I have today, I bought them at that time.”
His art teacher in high school would send to him, older students to train them and this really propelled his love and passion for art. He used this chance to also earn a living from it. “ I drew calligraphy designs on my fellow students’ certificates and made some money out of this,” says Cheche.
The self taught artist describes his work as impressionism and is using his work paintings to highlight mostly political, social and economic events from his environment.
“I want to talk about the woman who wakes up early every day, works very hard but also the leader she voted for who does not make changes that improves the situation for this woman.