Oil: Africans' Wealth and Woes
Oil 574 views
Made by a human
O. Yemi Tubi certifies having made this artwork by hand, with no AI-generated imagery.
As in many African countries, Nigeria is rich in agricultural products and many natural resources. Before the advent of petroleum oil cocoa, coffee, groundnuts, palm oil and other agricultural products were the main sources of Nigeria’s wealth. Since early 1970s, the petroleum oil boom era, Nigerian government’s attention has concentrated mainly on oil and the revenue it generates. Very few Nigerians have become very wealthy through oil money while oil pollution of air, water and farm lands has made very many Nigerians extremely poor. This is what influenced O. Yemi’s painting – “Oil: Africans’ Wealth and Woes” As an artist who originated from Nigeria, O. Yemi was moved by the plight of his people from Niger Delta in Nigeria where oil pollution affects the lives and livelihood of the people. In developing this idea, he puts some of the images he found online together graphically on his computer. He started to use ‘subtractive’ painting, a technique used by many illustrators in various ways. He did a very finished pencil drawing then coated the drawing with oil. This requires very little opaque work as the half-tone drawing beneath is similar to a tinted photo he was using as reference. After the well-detailed drawing, he started to apply colours to the painting. He started from the top painting the sky with cyan blue and white colours which he later went over with black and white colours to turn the beautiful sky to grey in order to reflect the polluted air produced by thick smoke emitting from the burst oil pipe from the far left of the painting. Under the polluted air he painted a rusty-roof shack village to show the level of poverty of the people living in the oil-rich part of the country with some of the fishermen boats stationed idle at the bank of the oil-polluted river and in the foreground are the children fetching water and drinking water from the polluted river.
Like some of the old art masters Delacroix and Goya that spoke about social and political upheavals of their time in their works, O. Yemi uses some of his paintings to express himself about on-going political and social issues around the world. “A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art” so said Paul Cezanne; O. Yemi was deeply moved by the horrors of wars and the plight of immigrants drowning in the sea to pick up his brushes again. His first political painting was “ARAB REVOLUTION” influenced by Arab Spring that started in 2012. “THE EAGLE HAS LANDED” was done to speak about American led war on terror. His painting -“KABIYESI OBA OBAMA (Unquestionable King Obama)” was a political satire based on the love and hate relationship between President Obama and Donald Trump. “THE BLEEDING ROSE” was done in solidarity with Christians beheaded by ISIS in Iraq and Syria. “Hunger in the Land of Plenty” and “OIL: AFRICANS’ WEALTH and WOE” were about poverty and exploitation of African people. He also used his painting – “UKRINE: THE UNFORTUNATE BRIDE” to speak about how America and Russia influenced the war in Ukraine. “THE FISHERS OF MEN” was about immigrants drowning in the sea. When O. Yemi works on portrait paintings, he desires his portrait paintings to be uniquely creative. He often uses the paintings to tell stories about his subjects. In one of his commissioned paintings “Josanne of Trinidad”, he blended the images of the parents at the top background cloud and the main subject below the images of her parents. This is to indicate that the parents are in heaven looking down on Josanne. He often uses his subjects’ professions to create their paintings. He used artist materials to create his painting “PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST” and image of violin for the portrait of “THE VIOLINIST” He used books and flowing letters to create the portrait of Professor Wole Soyinka, 1986 Nobel Prize Winner in Literature in painting “SOYINKA: AN AFRICAN LITERARY ICON” O. Yemi has widely exhibited his works around the world in group and solo exhibitions. His works had featured in exhibitions in Bogota, Colombia; Vancouver, Canada; UN exhibition, Milan, Italy; Tokyo, Japan; USA and in many cities across the United Kingdom. O. Yemi has received many awards for his works across the world; his works have also been published in many art magazines and contemporary arts books. He is a member of the Fine Art America, the Society of All Artists, AERA –the Association Embracing Realistic Art and WCA- World Citizen Artists. O. Yemi paintings and awards can be seen on his website: www.o-yemi-tubi.pixels.com
