Kuendelea, 55cm x 75cm

Iris is listening to her favourite African music while she paints, making me laugh as I watch her body sway to the music.  Cloaked in blue cotton with little tassels on her cape dancing to the beat.  Her arms shoot out this way and that as she works quickly from one side of the paper to the other.  Then disaster strikes! Her cape drapes into the paint and spreads it’s mark across the paper.  Iris is in shock, standing perfectly still for a while as I make a plan to help her.  First by trying to get as much of it off her cape as possible, she points to the paper and I give her a hug telling her that it will be alright, we will sort it out.  She is miserable and I have to take her away into another room to calm her down and we leave the painting to dry.  Later when all is well again, the cape washed and dried, she returns to her painting and I fill with pride as I watch her try again.  This time she uses the sponges to create different effects on the paper and a beautiful image grows and evolves before my eyes.  A dramatic and incredibly expressive painting lies before her on the coffee table in the kitchen.  So here it is, Iris’s new Painting called ‘Kuendelea’ a Swahili name meaning growth and evolution.