At 87, Geraldine Robarts is perhaps the oldest living visual artist in Kenya. But her paintbrush isn’t drying up any time soon.
This weekend, some of her works will be showcased at the African Design Collective pop-up exhibition at 34 Ngara Road Nairobi, the continuation of an artistic journey that is a decade shy of a century.
She comes from a strong lineage of artists and has painted since she was two years old.
“My grandmother was a fashion designer and she had to raise me because I was an orphan. I spent the first year of my life in an orphanage since it was in the middle of the second world war. My grandmother was a couture fashion designer. I would watch her cut little strips of clothes and materials, which she would give to me, then I would draw human figures on them.”
Art was embedded in Geraldine’s DNA from an early age. Surrounded by paints and colour, she grew up seeing creativity not merely as a practice but as a language of self-expression. Today, she believes visual artists owe it to themselves and their craft to tell their own stories.
“Art is my way of expressing myself, and that is the whole point. Only I can tell my story. As an old artist, I get very worried when I see people taking photographs on their phones and copying the pictures on canvas.
“Skill is very important, but it is not art. Many young people today have very good eye-hand coordination, but a lot of them copy everything from their phones. In art, self-expression is more important than the skill itself.
“As artists, we tell our own stories, so the story must be unique. Art is similar to singing, writing or dancing. It has to come from the soul. Art is a language and a passion, and the courage to create something new is what matters.”
The trainer
Her journey begins in Uganda in 1964 where she had come because of her Bahai faith. Her work involved moving to the villages teaching women groups how to do tie and dye, make candles and bake bread, arts which she had taught herself. She did this across Kenya and Uganda until 2016, driven by her love for the women she worked with.
Darker Small, oil on canvas by Geraldine Robarts.
Photo credit: Pool
“In the early 70s when I came to Kenya, I knew of about five artists. Three of them owned the Watatu Gallery in Nairobi. The late Margaretta wa Gacheru came in 1974 and she started highlighting the stories of artists.
“By then I was teaching at Kenyatta University and being paid Sh15,000 most of which went into buying painting materials for my students because the university had such a miserable budget for the arts department. I think I have taught over 10,000 students who are scattered all over the world.”
Geraldine’s longevity in the craft is largely driven by a spirit that does not frazzle from creating.
“It never gets tiring. I am always happy to be in my studio even after 45 years of teaching. To be alone in my studio is just heaven, I don’t get tired in heaven because I love what I do. Inside each of us is something different and it doesn’t matter how one paints it. What is important is sharing one’s unique story.”
Matter of the soul
At 87, Geraldine did not expect to have any more shows until she was approached by organisers of the African Design Pop Up Art show who picked some paintings from her collection (which has about 3,000 paintings) some dating back to 20 years ago and others as recent as this year.
Her more recent paintings are outlooks of her garden from her studio. They are expressive vistas of bright shades of colour with just the right balance of stroke work. They bear the playful dalliance of an experienced artist who takes the work as play and vividly, one gets the feeling of staring at a master expressionist at play.
Baobab, oil on canvas by Geraldine Robarts.
Photo credit: Pool
Geraldine is profoundly spiritual and talks about the state of the world and the understanding of the times from her convictions of the Bahai religion, which among other things is wholly pegged on the spiritual unity of all mankind.
“Possibly we might be on the brink of a third world war which means that death and destruction are not so far off, but it also means we are nearing rebirth, renewal and a new beginning. Things are changing so fast, for the better. The destruction will also be a cleanup of people’s hearts and minds, which will hopefully help all of us establish better values.”
So, what makes a good artist?
“Tell your own story. I have taught students who have come from places like Mathare and Kibera to showcase in the Venice Biennale. They are scattered all over the world because they focused on telling their own stories.
“My studio is what church is for other people. It is my prayer room. Through painting, the world comes together for me. I love it when people discover something about themselves through my paintings. If I had something to tell every visual artist, I would tell them art is a matter of the soul and that each one of them has a really beautiful story to tell.”
