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‘Rhythms Within’: Where colours speak and silence sings
James Mbuthia, an artist, poses for a photo during an interview at the ‘Rhythms Within’ art exhibition at the One Off Art Gallery in Nairobi on June 19, 2025.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
James Mbuthia is a man who wears many bucket hats. He is a small-scale farmer, a preacher and an artist for which purpose I speak to him. He is currently exhibiting at the One Off Art Contemporary Gallery, titled ‘Rhythms Within’, a vibrant journey into the world of abstract art where women’s figurines pirouette on a pinnacle.
James has been sketching since childhood, but at a professional level, he says he began doing it in 1995 when he sold his first painting for Sh5,000. He has improved his craft, evident in his current show with his artworks ranging from Sh130,000 to Sh400,000.
James, now almost 70, cuts the image of a simple man, a man that wants to preach and head home to tend to his animals. His paintings, however tell a different story. They are warm in stark contrast to the weather.
Sweetness of Love canvas painting by James Mbuthia at the ‘Rhythms Within’ art exhibition at the One Off Art Gallery in Nairobi on June 19, 2025.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
Rhythms Within is a journey into a world of ease with rolling hills, churches, villages and women. It is almost as if a village has been brought into a renaissance era in the mixed media of acrylic, oil on canvas and pastel.
“My art is self-taught, which is why it has taken me a long time to get here,” he says. “I was just painting on my own until another artist found me and asked where I took my paintings after I was finished with them to which I answered that I either threw them away or gave them out.”
The artist then introduced him to the Banana Hill Art Gallery, and that was the beginning of the present.
Unlike most artists, James didn’t abandon his other pursuits entirely to pursue painting.
“I am also a small-scale farmer because you know, you cannot sell paintings like vegetables. I paint because it is a gift and although it can sustain me, I still keep chicken, and cattle and dig a few plots here and there,” he says. “I am also a practising pastor, ordained for years now, I am always busy.”
He admits his spiritual background has cast an influence on his murals.
“My artworks are guided by my inner feelings; they are very spiritual. I came to realise later on when I was looking at creation and the way God sees things, I realised that every sound has a colour and a shape. I combine all those things whenever I am working, which leads me to follow my inner feelings,"he says.
He adds, “The dreams I have when I am awake guide my work and the way my brush moves.”
Twin sisters canvas painting by James Mbuthia at the ‘Rhythms Within’ art exhibition at the One Off Art Gallery in Nairobi on June 19, 2025.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
James is a stickler for quietude and his muse thrives in silence.
“Sometimes people look at my work and say that it is quite chaotic which is the exact opposite. I see my art as the sound of music, music that you feel, soft music from the background.”
His paintings have a lot of images depicting humanity and the day to day life.
“Most of my works have women in them. It is productivity, the future and when I look at the present, it gives birth to the future. The woman carries the present and the future of our nation and family, the man is just a prop in the background.”
His paintings have a gentle warmth in their glaze. His colours have a pleasant appeal in their attraction, a factor James attributes to how he approaches a piece of canvas.
“I never paint when I am feeling low. It is always when I am jovial because I like putting out things that people can live with. There is art you can produce where the subjects clash with the viewers. You can enter a painted room and feel like you are entering a cave because of the colours used. Similarly, you can enter another room and find it has increased in size because of the colours used. Colours have the power to influence mood.”
All his paintings have to be hung in his house before being released which he says enables him to assess them as he lives with them.
His style is influenced by the old masters of painting from whom he picks a chunk of lessons.
“The old masters became so when they started being themselves. If you look at a cubist like Picasso and how he balanced himself you could suggest that he understood the focal point of his paintings. If you understand the voice of your painting, which is what draws people to your work is, it is a step in the right direction to becoming a master.”
James Mbuthia, an artist, explains the inspiration behind some of his pieces during an interview at the ‘Rhythms Within’ art exhibition at the One Off Art Gallery in Nairobi on June 19, 2025.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
Rhythms Within is inspired by his inner feelings which he considers as musical. In most of his paintings, the painting process looks like a little dance between canvas and brush.
His subjects are bent in a gentle awe with his rolling backgrounds setting up the warm cadence of a sea breeze in the evening. Nothing is straight but even in the crookedness, there is a gentle touch to the abstraction.
How does he manage to keep his art and his spiritual beliefs on a balanced scale?
“I am not controlled by art, I control my art. You cannot lie to yourself, you give what you have. When you let go, what comes out is what you have, if you have evil things, that is what will come out. If you keep a pig as a pet in the house, it will still run to mud when you release it.”
