Artist analysis-Chidi Okoye

Chidi Okoye - hungry for the world

Pencil on paint

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/163396292701948588/

Chidi Okoye is a Nogerian artist and not directly linked to my theme of Indian celebrations but I liked his style of work. I particularly appreciate the use of vivid colour within Okoye's drawings, as well as the detailed drawings over the top, something I would like to replicate in my own work.

Okoye graduated with a distinction in sculpture from the Institute of Management and Texhnology in Enugu, Nigeria in 1988, although he regularly paints aswell as making sculptures.

His work, including both sculptures and paintings, have an African approach to colour, however I felt that the use of colour also linked quite strongly to Indian celebrations, for example the 'Holi' festival, as they are also very colourful events. Furthermore, Okoye uses his style with a large range of different subjects, which also helps it relate to many different cultures and themes. Chidi Okoye presents a range of subjects in his art as he takes inspiration from the nature and the environment around him.

This piece in particular I think strongly relates to the 'Holi' festival, a national holiday in India, as it is known as the spring festival of colours. Powdered paint is thrown at people and elsewhere so everywhere ends up looking very vivid with different colours overlapping and different tones being created, similar to the background here.

Okoye's piece (pictured above) also shows a very flowing and loose style of drawing which I personally find difficult which is why in my pieces of work inspired by him, I have used quite detailed line drawings. I do feel that Okoye's style of drawing does complement the multi coloured background as the extra pencil marks add more tone and extra interesting elements to the piece as the main focus points are darker but also there are paler marks within the drawing that give the piece a more three-dimensional effect, an effect that I cannot accomplish when doing line drawings using a fine liner.

This drawing also reflects Okoye's sculptural work as the flowing lines makes it look like preparation for a sculpture.

These two images (above) are of pieces I made in the style of Chidi Okoye's piece, 'Hungry for the world', however I drew indian related images over the top of the coloured paint as it relates to my theme more closely. I chose mainly warm colours such as reds, purples, pinks and oranges because they are colours that regularly appear in Indian weddings and celebrations.

This piece of work (pictured above) is an interpretation of Chidi Okoye's 'hungry for the world'. I created it by painting water onto a page and then dripping different water colour paints on top, this caused the paints to disperse when they hit the wet surface, resulting in the colours blending together quite nicely and in a fluid manner. I liked this technique quite a lot and will probably use it again as I felt it gave an interesting effect as new colours were constantly being made. After that I drew my interpretation of the 'Hungry for the world' piece onto my piece of paper when it was dry. I used a 9b pencil as I wanted to replicate the contrast between soft and harsh lines shown in Okoye's piece.

To study this piece and the rest of Okoye's work further I am going to make some observational drawings of people in saris as this would not only incorporate Okoye's use of colour but also his style of drawing people.