African People Archives - Alison Nicholls

Category Archives: African People

When in doubt, choose change.

You know that feeling when you find an artist whose work you love, and then they start changing direction, and you’re not so enthralled by the new work? You wish they’d just carry on creating the work you loved. But if an artist never changes, then they have either stopped learning and experimenting, or they’ve stopped caring – and either way their art will eventually stagnate.

Older artworks in pastel and on yupo paper.

I’ve been painting African subject matter for almost 20 years now, and here are some of the changes I’ve made during that time.

I began, as many artists do, by creating realistic studio art, including both animals and landscapes in watercolor.
In the studio, landscapes gradually disappeared from my work and instead my animal subjects became immersed in watercolor washes.
I became bolder with my color choices (I went a bit over-board with color on occasions if I’m honest).
My experiments with color turned me towards pastel, and I spent a couple of years working in both pastel and watercolor. Eventually I decided to focus on just one medium, and of course I chose watercolor.
I started drawing animals from life in pencil, adding watercolor washes afterwards.
I made a conscious effort to loosen up as I began to understand animal anatomy.
In the studio I started using my sketches as the ideas behind my paintings.
I began limiting my color palette to 3 or 4 colors in each painting.
I started a series of conservation-themed paintings.

Recent field watercolor and older lion demonstration drawing.

I started sketching and painting people – a scary prospect but one I now thoroughly enjoy.
I investigated new painting surfaces and mediums. For a couple of years I painted only on watercolor canvas in fluid acrylics.
I spent more time sketching & painting from life in Africa and started using pen for my drawings, with watercolor washes on top.
Back in the studio I tried to replicate the life drawing I loved by creating daily sketches, lasting 10 minutes each. These were often a mix of pen and watercolor on yupo paper.
I found a stack of heavier watercolor paper and realized I’d forgotten how much fun it was to paint on a heavier paper, so I threw myself back into stretching watercolor paper and using watercolor paints.
I started painting watercolor landscapes again, sometimes including wildlife and sometimes pure landscape.

Until I wrote this, I had no idea I had made so many changes over the years. I feel like I learn something, forget it and rediscover it again a few years later. I’ve come full circle. When in doubt, definitely choose change!

Conservation themed art and a recent giraffe watercolor.

Let me know how your art has changed or, if you are not an artist, how your taste for art has changed.
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

“When in doubt, choose change” is a quote by Hong Kong actress Lily Leung.

Watercolor Wash

I tidied a corner of my studio recently and found this piece of writing:

“A watercolor wash is beautiful to look at and satisfying to produce. You take a large brush, submerge it in watery paint then drag the brush across the surface of the dry, dimpled paper until the paint thins and the band of color breaks and cracks. Then you refill the brush with that color-quenching paint, and the white expanse of paper waits for whatever might be… When I’ve been away from Africa too long I feel like the brush which needs reloading with paint. I need to go back, to flood my senses again with the color and sensations of Africa.”

Sunset in Limpopo-Lipadi, Tuli Block, Botswana

I wrote this many years ago – I’m not sure exactly when – but it still rings true, especially after a year when I couldn’t visit.
Take care.
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Support People on Endangered Species Day

We need to support people and wildlife on Endangered Species Day. Everywhere people are suffering physically, financially and mentally from the pandemic and obviously this includes many Africans who work in tourism, wildlife research or conservation.

Endangered Species Day 2020

Much vital conservation work involves people rather than wildlife. Reducing human-wildlife conflict, conducting anti-poaching patrols, or helping rural people find sustainable income-generating opportunities are all conservation activities that help people but also ensure the continued existence of endangered species. Endangered Species Day is May 15, and I hope you will consider helping me support people and wildlife through art.
From May 15 – 22:

~ Every order of my art will include a special free gift, as a thank you from me.

~ Shipping will be free within the US, and half-price to all other destinations.

~ I’ll donate the following amounts to African conservation organizations: 50% from orders of Daily Sketches; 40% from original acrylics on canvas, 25% from limited edition prints; and 30% from original watercolor field sketches.

~ My donations will go to African People & Wildlife (Tanzania), Painted Dog Research Trust (Zimbabwe) and Cheetah Conservation Botswana.

Crash – Rhinos on Endangered Species Day (photo features my painting, Thandi the rhino and Dr Will Fowlds of WFA).

Speaking of endangered species, last month I was able to donate US$2000 to Wilderness Foundation Africa in South Africa, from the sale of Crash – Rhino Poaching in South Africa. I’m delighted when my conservation-themed paintings help fund efforts to conserve species under threat, and South Africa’s rhinos definitely fall into that category. Read more about the painting and rhino poaching here.

Check out my art for Endangered Species Day!

Stay well.
Alison

WasteAid Virtual Safari

WasteAid has created a Virtual Safari into the Kenyan wilderness!
It’s an immersive experience with science, culture, art, cookery and lots of wildlife to help lift spirits, and to raise money for waste collectors in low-income countries.

The safari route is around Lake Naivasha in Kenya, where WasteAid is working with local partners to improve waste collection and recycling. The entire 75-kilometre route is equivalent to 100,000 steps or 1,000 minutes exercise. Along the way you visit a number of ‘stations’ where you can complete unique challenges. You share your journey as you go, and can win prizes along the route, including 2 of my wildlife limited-edition prints!

The Virtual Safari offers a change of scenery and a fun and educational experience, while helping protect people and wildlife in poorer parts of the world.

The virtual safari opens opened on Earth Day (22 April) and stays open until World Environment Day (5 June).

Ahead, 8×10″ limited edition print, 1 of the prizes for the WasteAid virtual safari.

Zoë Lenkiewicz, Head of Programs and Engagement at WasteAid, says:

“We wanted to create something for people to escape into and enjoy, while raising money for our urgent appeal Waste Collectors Rock! The communities around Lake Naivasha, especially those working with waste, are in poverty and vulnerable to disease – yet at the same time they are surrounded by all this incredible wildlife. We thought it would be fun to support waste collectors in places like this, by sharing the beauty and wonder of the environment they work so hard to protect.”

WasteAid shares waste management and recycling skills in the world’s poorest places and you can help them by visiting Kenya on their virtual safari!

Safari njema!
(Travel well).
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

International Women’s Day

On this International Women’s Day, I would like to highlight Mama Helena Mbarnoti, an inspiring Maasai woman from the village of Loibor Siret in northern Tanzania (mama is a respectful term for a married woman in Tanzania).

Mama Helena at her tea stall, painted in watercolor by Alison Nicholls

African People & Wildlife’s headquarters, the Noloholo Environmental Education Center, is built on land donated by the surrounding community, where Mama Helena lives. I met her each time I visited APW and over the years have seen her strong support of APW’s work with her community. She is now a member of a women’s bee-keeping group, supported by APW, and the delicious honey produced by wild bees is sold, bringing the women their own income.

On one visit to APW, Mama Helena invited me to sketch her in her tea stall at the weekly market (above) and on my latest visit I sketched her at a meeting of the women’s bee-keeping group (below). I send copies of my sketches to everyone who features in them and when I returned to Loibor Siret in June 2019 she showed me the copy of the tea stall sketch, which she keeps at home.

Womens Meeting sketch by Alison Nicholls

Women’s meeting (Mama Helena on left) in northern Tanzania, by Alison Nicholls

All around the world women are doing incredible things (Dr Laly Lichtenfeld, co-founder of APW is another obvious example) so lets celebrate that each and every day, not just on International Women’s Day.

Mama Helena Photo: African People & Wildlife/Laura Milton

More next time!
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Watercolors featured on Artsy Shark

My watercolors featured on Artsy Shark last week. If you’re an artist you may know this website, as the founder, Carolyn Edlund’s mission is to inspire every artist to build a better art business. I saw a call for featured artists and submitted my work. In addition to a spot on the website as the featured artist, I also received a nice pdf of the feature too.
Have a read and enjoy my recent watercolors from Africa!

Featured Artist Alison Nicholls

All my watercolors are for sale, priced between $250 and $350 depending on the size. Please take a look and let me know if you would like to own one. I donate 25% from the sale of each one to African conservation organizations.
More next time!
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Paws Trails Explorers

I and my art inspired by Africa have been featured in the beautiful Paws Trails Explorers digital magazine. The article is in the Wild Arts Showcase and focuses on my watercolor and ink work created from life in the African bush. I talk about why sketching from life is so important to me; how I gathered the courage to start; which materials work well and which were disastrous; how my work changed when I connected with conservation organizations; and how my art now benefits those same groups.

To read the Paws Trails Explorers article, click the image above and go to page 92 or you can find it online here at http://www.pawstrails.com/ (Dec 2019 / Jan 2020 Issue #20). The photography in the magazine is quite stunning and I’m delighted to have my art featured in the Wild Arts Showcase section. You might want to consider joining the Paws Trails Explorers mailing list so you receive future issues.

Enjoy!
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

The Soccer Game

Soccer (or football) is huge in Africa. Almost every person has a favorite team, often from Europe. So when we heard there was a soccer tournament going on at Limpopo-Lipadi while we were there, we wanted to go along and support the team. I decided to sketch the game too. It was extremely hot and my paint was drying very fast, which made it quite challenging, but it was fun. Unfortunately, the Limpopo-Lipadi team (in green) lost to the police team (in red). Or maybe that was just as well!

I photographed the sketch and gave it to Limpopo-Lipadi to hang in the office. As a result, the photo of the finished piece isn’t great, but you get the idea. There’s something about live sketching like this that inspires me so much. Of course I can always see vast improvements I could make in the sketch, but when I look at it I remember the heat, the dust, the shouting and laughter. Magic!

Learn more about Limpopo-Lipadi game reserve and their wonderful Motse volunteering and community program.

Alison Nicholls
Art Inspired by Africa
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Women in Tanzania

Rural women in Tanzania usually have a fairly low status in society and are often completely dependent on their husband, even though women do much of the work in rural households.

Loibor Siret Women’s Meeting

African People & Wildlife (APW) works in conjunction with many rural communities in Tanzania, and together their initiatives are helping women become financially independent, giving them a voice in the decision-making of their families and their communities. Bee-keeping is one such initiative and has the added advantage of protecting habitat because Tanzania has a strong Bee-Keeping Act which ensures that land cannot be farmed or cleared around beehives.

Sketch of rural women in Tanzania, by Alison Nicholls

Women’s Meeting, ink and watercolor sketch from life by Alison Nicholls

Learning about the bee-keeping initiative, which involves more than 1200 women, and being able to sketch after a meeting of the Loibor Siret women’s bee-keeping group, is a thrill. There can be few things better for a sketch artist than sitting in a rural village, surrounded by the sights & sounds of everyday life, while sketching a group of women chatting under a shady tree. This was my 4th visit to APW and it is wonderful to be recognized and greeted enthusiastically by women I have sketched on my previous visits.

Mama Helena Beading, ink sketch from life by Alison Nicholls

Mama Helena, shown beading in the sketch above, invited me to sketch at her homestead afterwards, and sent one of her grandchildren to fetch a sketch I did of her last time I was in Tanzania, 5 years ago!

Alison Nicholls sketching in Tanzania

Sketching with an audience is something I am completely used to and it’s fun to see the children’s faces as the sketch progresses and they recognize the person I am sketching.

Not all my sketches go to plan!

I’m making copies of my sketches to be sent back to Tanzania, but I hope my next visit to APW will be in the very near future.
Alison

Learn more about African People & Wildlife.
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Art in Tanzania

I see natural artistic talent every time I teach a children’s art class but it is particularly striking to see when you know the children have no art lessons at school, no access to art materials at home, and little exposure to art online or in print. Unfortunately, this can describe children anywhere in the world, including many parts of the the US & Europe, but on this occasion I am thinking of children in classes I taught while visiting African People & Wildlife (APW) in Tanzania.

One class was for students in the APW Summercamp and one for students at Loibor Siret Elementary School (this class also included teachers from other schools who wanted to see the classes in action). I have animal drawing cards which show a photo of an animal (wildlife & livestock) then the simple shapes and lines you can use to create a drawing of the animal. We aim to do 4 in an hour-long class, so the children concentrate on drawing the shape of the whole animal, not the detail on their faces or coats. As you can see, the opportunity to draw is really appreciated by the children and the teachers too!

The children you see in this video are members of their respective schools’ Wildlife Clubs (set up with help from APW). The highest achieving and most involved children in the Wildlife Clubs can earn a much sought-after place at APW’s Environmental Summer Camp – a week-long camp of learning activities at the Noloholo Environmental Center. Children who attend Summer Camp become eligible for selection for an APW Noloholo Environmental Scholarship, giving that child a full scholarship to secondary/high school at a good boarding school in the town of Arusha.

The cost for each scholarship is US$1200 per year. If you are able to offer a child this invaluable gift of education, please Donate via the APW website and choose this option:

Send a scholar to private school for one year: $1,200

(Please note: No child is selected for a scholarship unless funds are available for their entire secondary/high school education, so there will never be a case of a child receiving a partial education. However, although it is desirable to donate annually, you can choose to make a 1-time donation of this amount too.)
Thank You!
Alison

Learn more about African People & Wildlife.

Mural Magic in Tanzania

A major reason for my return to African People & Wildlife (APW) in Tanzania was to help with murals in 3 rural schools. The students created the designs using their own drawings and some images I supplied, then I made stencils to help transfer the outlines onto the walls quickly. The stencils proved very helpful and as a result it took each set of students only 1 day to finish their murals.

The name of the school and village (Loibor Siret, Kangala or Narakauo) is shown at the top of each wall, and the school’s Wildlife Club name is at the bottom. The Wildlife Clubs were set up with help from APW, and Noloholo is APW’s Environmental Center and headquarters. So Noloholo Simba Klabu means Noloholo Lion Club in Swahili. The other schools have twiga (giraffe) and faru (rhinoceros) as their symbols. I am making more stencils out of canvas (featuring different animals for other Wildlife Clubs) so more murals can be created by the students with help from APW.

I have visited APW 4 times, and every time I am struck by their continued success in “finding the balance for communities & wildlife”. There will be much more about my recent visit coming soon!

Learn more about African People & Wildlife.
Read about my previous visits to APW.

Thanks for watching!
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Music on this video is royalty free, titled Acoustic Breeze, from www.Bensound.com

Packing for Tanzania

I’ll be off to Tanzania again in a couple of weeks, visiting African People & Wildlife to help with some murals in rural schools and do some art classes for teachers and students. Somehow, I hope to do some of my own sketching too, so here’s my latest video showing what I’m taking with me. You can read about my previous visits to APW here.
More soon!
Alison

Learn from the Masters

If your goal is sketching wildlife and you want to learn from the masters, you could do far worse than look at rock art by the San (Khoi-San or bushmen). With a few simple lines they catch the essence of an animal, so you immediately know it. And through their lifestyle as hunter-gatherers they are unparalleled in their knowledge of the animals they depicted in their rock art.

Rock art in Savute, Botswana

Over the years I’ve seen rock art in many locations in southern Africa including Matopos (Zimbabwe), the Tsodilo Hills (Botswana) and Twyfelfontein (Namibia). Most of the paintings are not in caves but are on the underside of overhanging rocks, while many of the petroglyphs (images chipped into the rock surface) are on fully exposed rocks.

How I start an elephant sketch by Alison Nicholls

Last year I was in Savute, Botswana, and revisited a rock art panel on one of the small hills in the area. I sketched the 3 main animals – an eland, elephant, and sable antelope. A few months later I was creating a video for my Art Safari guests, showing how I start my sketches of elephants. I remembered the elephant painting in Savute and realized the 2 main shapes I start my sketches with (a large block for the body and a smaller block for the head) are the same as the main shapes for the elephant in the Savute painting.
Maybe the rock art I’ve seen has influenced me more than I knew!
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Petroglyphs, Twyfelfontein, Namibia

Murals in Tanzania

Painting on a wall while standing on a wobbly plank balanced between 2 wobbly supports, is something many artists will have done I’m guessing.

Drawing out the initial mural design African People & Wildlife

I was visiting African People & Wildlife, near Tarangire National Park, learning about the organization and their successful work with communities to allow people and wildlife to co-exist on the Maasai Steppe. Part of my visit involved art-related activities and on this occasion I was drawing out the design for a mural at the Loibor Siret primary school, so that the students could paint it. We were designing as we went along but it worked out well.

Mural design photo: Deirdre Leowinata / AfricanPeople&Wildlife

Some of the paint literally slipped off the wall as we painted it on, so we have nothing red in the finished mural. And the brushes lost so many hairs that the lions took on a far more realistic look than I could have possibly hoped for!

photo: Deirdre Leowinata / AfricanPeople&Wildlife

But many enthusiastic and capable hands made the whole experience great, and sometimes the trials are what the best memories are made of. I’m going back in June and this time the designs are being drawn up by the students, winners will be decided in advance, and with a bit of luck, 3 schools will end up with colorful murals designed and painted by members of the school community. However, this time I’m bringing brushes with me, and we’ll buy a different kind of paint. Live and learn!

Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Sketching Villages from a Moving Car!

Recently I discovered that sketching villages from a moving car might be more difficult than sketching wildlife!

These rural scenes were sketched as we drove down from Kasane to the Tuli Block in Botswana. Although we are driving quite slowly through villages, it’s still a challenge to sketch and you need to develop a photographic memory by looking, memorizing, then sketching. However, I soon found my stride because these rural scenes are etched in my brain, from my years of living in Botswana. I wanted to capture the typical sights of a village – people sitting by the road; herds of cows in the shade of a tree; donkeys and goats; village bars and small houses with satellite dishes. Pen was the perfect medium and I particularly love this pinky-gray ZIG Memory System writer. And sketching made the long drive go by much faster!
Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Safari Night at the Explorers Club

Alison Nicholls speaking about how Africa inspired her art, at The Explorers Club, New York City.

Last night I was fortunate to be sharing the stage at The Explorers Club during Safari Night, which was organized by Ann Passer and Alan Feldstein. There was wonderful music, singing and dancing from Cameroon and Tanzania, excellent food from various African countries, and speakers on topics covering the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia; clips from Born to Explore including a visit with the Hadzabe in Tanzania; the evolution of safari companies; panotriptychs of extraordinary conservationists; an update from Zimbabwe; discussion of neurosurgery in Tanzania and an introduction to remarkable Rwanda.

Richard Wiese showing clips from Born to Explore.

I spoke about the size of Africa and how living there inspired various features of my art – space, color and subject matter. I also digressed slightly into why no-one who goes to Africa should do a “walking with lions” experience. (Basically because you can only walk safely with young lions, as soon as they get older they are more dangerous. So what happens to them once they get too large to safely walk with tourists? They can’t be released as they are used to people and can’t hunt. The most likely end is a sad one – they are sold to canned hunting operations and shot. Their bones may even end up being sold to meet the increasing international demand for lion bone.)

I did end on a more amusing note though:
When I was planning to move to Zimbabwe from London, I was asked a question by many Londoners. Years later, when I was planning to move to New York from Botswana, I was asked the very same question by many Batswana (citizens of Botswana). The question was: “Isn’t it dangerous there?”

Everything is relative…
Take care
Alison

www.artinspiredbyafrica.com

Upstaged by a Cheetah!

On Sunday night I was sketching a live cheetah in Poughkeepsie, New York, at a benefit for the Cheetah Conservation Fund. The cheetah in question came from the Columbus Zoo in Ohio and is a hand-reared ‘ambassador’ cheetah, who is used to traveling (with her Labrador companion!) to events to help raise funds for the conservation of her wild counterparts.

Alison Nicholls sketching an ambassador cheetah

Dr Laurie Marker, founder and Executive Director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia, was the guest of honor. While Dr Marker was speaking about cheetah conservation in Namibia and around the world, the cheetah was doing all she could to upstage her, by purring unbelievably loudly. And while that was happening, I was sketching. Here I am, later in the evening, with Laurie and 1 of my sketches.

Artist Alison Nicholls with Laurie Marker of the Cheetah Conservation Fund

Artist Alison Nicholls and her sketch, with Laurie Marker of the Cheetah Conservation Fund

And here is the sketch. Cheetah watercolor sketch by Alison Nicholls

Paola Bari had organized the event and on display were a number of artworks on ostrich eggs, including 1 by yours truly. It was a wonderful evening, although quite strange for me because less than a month ago I was sketching a pair of cheetah brothers in northern Botswana catching an impala!

Find out more about the Cheetah Conservation Fund.
See my Ostrich Egg Artwork.

Until next time…take care
Alison

www.ArtInspiredByAfrica.com

Alison Nicholls Painting Featured in Explorers Club Event

Visionaries of Conservation – Paradigm Shifts in Protecting the Planet is the theme of The Explorers Club 2015 Lowell Thomas Awards Dinner. If you look closely, you may recognize the image featured below – yes it is my acrylic painting, Sun Spots!

Sun Spots by Alison Nicholls: Explorers Club Lowell Thomas Awards Dinner

I’m looking forward to attending the weekend of events, hosted by the Florida Chapter of The Explorers Club, in early November. The events will “celebrate explorers who exhibit excellence and innovation in conservation, with emphasis on emerging techniques and technologies that meaningfully contribute to our knowledge of the world and how we protect it.”

I am delighted that my art has been chosen to represent this important event in the celebration of conservation!

Until next time…
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Walk A Mile In Another’s Shoes by Alison Nicholls

Walking a mile in another person’s shoes is a valuable exercise, allowing us to see life from someone else’s perspective. But the words that make up this phrase show us a lot too. The assumption is that people everywhere wear shoes, something that is just not true in much of the world. In many places, people wear no shoes at all, or the shoes they wear are made from materials that would be discarded in Europe or in the US. Like the ‘ten thousand-milers’, sandals worn across East Africa, by the Maasai and other tribes. These practical, long-lasting sandals are made from the tread of car tires (that’s tyres, for those in the UK).

Sandals made from car tires, field sketch by Alison Nicholls. The tread of the tire is used as the sole.

Shoes or no shoes, “walking a mile in another person’s footsteps” is a valuable lesson, and might result in more understanding and appreciation for other cultures, something that countries across the world could benefit from.

Until next time…
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Lions, Livestock & Living Walls on Long Island

Join me on Sunday June 7 from 2 – 4pm, as I celebrate the appearance of my exhibition, Lions, Livestock & Living Walls, on Long Island. You can see my watercolor field sketches and studio acrylic paintings, based on my visits to the African People & Wildlife Fund in Tanzania. You’ll also be able to see my new book, and at 3pm hear me talk briefly about APW and my visits there.

Cold Spring Harbor Library, Long Island, NY

So please join me at the wonderful Cold Spring Harbor Library on Sunday June 7, from 2 – 4pm. The exhibition will be on display from June 2 – July 30. A donation will be made to APW from every sale.

Alison Nicholls sketching among the Maasai in Tanzania © African People & Wildlife Fund / Deirdre Leowinata

Alison Nicholls sketching in Tanzania. Photos by APW / Deirdre Leowinata

You can find the Cold Spring Harbor Library opening times here.
Learn more about the African People & Wildlife Fund.
See my African Field Sketches.

I hope to see you there!
Alison

See my new book!
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

10 Successful Years for the African People & Wildlife Fund!

2015 is the 10th Anniversary of the African People & Wildlife Fund. On April 25, I attended APW’s Annual Benefit, along with several pieces of my artwork. 1 small original and several limited edition giclées were sold, and APW received nearly US$700 in donations from these sales.

The benefit was a beautiful evening and a great chance to catch up with APW’s current work on the Maasai Steppe in Tanzania, helping rural people manage their natural resources for the mutual benefit of both people and wildlife.

Alison Nicholls with Dr Laly Lichtenfeld and Charles Trout of the African People & Wildlife Fund

Charles Trout, Alison Nicholls and Dr Laly Lichtenfeld at the 2015 APW Annual Benefit.

See more of my work with APW in my newly published book:
An Artist Visits the African People & Wildlife Fund.

Learn more about the African People & Wildlife Fund.

Until next time…
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Yes, I Fell For It…

The Museum of Modern Art in New York City has a great exhibit on at the moment: One-Way Ticket: Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series and Other Works. It documents the mass migration of African Americans, across several decades, from rural southern states to urban northern states. Well worth a visit! But I was there to do some sketching…

Exhibit Visitor sketch by Alison Nicholls

It was at the African People & Wildlife Fund in Tanzania, where I began sketching people and now I can’t seem to stop! The funny thing is that I usually have much more trouble sketching people in western clothing, than I do sketching the Maasai in Tanzania. I wondered why that was and realized I was falling for a common trap – sketching what you think you know, rather than what you actually see. I know western clothes. I wear them myself. So I thought I could sketch people wearing western clothing without spending too much time looking. Wrong!

At the Exhibition sketch by Alison Nicholls

So, on this trip to MOMA I made a conscious decision to start looking for the simple shapes that I use when sketching in Africa. And wouldn’t you know it, my sketches were so much better!

Check out the work of my friends and fellow artists, who joined me on my MOMA sketching trip: Hazel Jarvis and Rachael Grimm.
More soon!

Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com (or wherever I happen to be!)

Have You Created a Monster?

Thank you to everyone who has helped make my book such a success! I have received so many orders that I will need to print more copies.

Alison Nicholls’ new book: An Artist Visits the African People & Wildlife Fund

I could never have guessed that the response would be so positive and of course I am thrilled. But you may have unleashed a monster – I am now planning my 2nd book, this time based on African wildlife! More about that soon…

Art Inspired by Africa: An Artist Visits the African People & Wildlife Fund

If you have placed an order, your book will be in the mail as soon as I’ve signed it. Thank you again for your support!

If you not yet placed an order but would like a signed copy… please remember that after April 30, the book will be available on Amazon.com, for a higher price. At the moment a signed copy is available from me for only US$35.

If you live in the USA, you can place an order here. Shipping within the US is US$6.

If you live outside the USA, please drop me an email and I can send you a shipping quote (shipping to the UK or New Zealand is $15).

A donation is made to the African People & Wildlife Fund from every sale.

Thank you!
Asanteni Sana! (Kiswahili)
Ashe Naleng! (KiMaasai)

Learn more about the African People & Wildlife Fund.
See more of my African Field Sketches.

Alison
www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com

Shocking and Senseless…

Some of you may have heard the terrible news from Zimbabwe, about the murder of Greg Gibbard from Painted Dog Conservation. I have not commented until now because I didn’t know what to say.

My thoughts go out to Greg’s family and friends, to everyone at PDC, and to the conservation community at large.

If you are wondering what you can do to help, think about supporting PDC in their moment of need. Greg would appreciate that.

Painted Dog Conservation

Alison

And The Winner Is…

The results are in, and they were pretty overwhelming. 74% of voters chose the Yellow Cover for my new book!!!
Art Inspired by Africa:
An Artist Visits the African People & Wildlife Fund

Alison Nicholls’ new Book featuring Art from Tanzania

I’m glad I asked you to vote for the cover design, because my instinctive choice was the White Cover! Some of you will argue that I should go with the white cover because it was my choice and I am the artist, but I have to disagree. If almost three quarters of you chose the yellow cover, then I’m going with you – after all, one of the purposes of this book is to publicize my art and the work of APW. And the best way to do that is to have a larger number of people pick up the book!

Because the results of the poll were so clear, I decided to close the contest early. So the name of the winner was pulled today. And guess what – the winner is another artist!

Shukas, a sample page from my upcoming book.

The winner is Ray Brown, a talented artist and friend. You should check out his art too – after you’ve ordered a signed copy of my book!

Field Sketches, a sample page from my upcoming book.

Pre-order a copy before April 30, 2015, and you will get a personally signed copy for the stupendously, ridiculously, low price of only US$35 excluding postage ($6 in the USA). After April 30, the book will be available on Amazon.com but at a higher price. I am ordering the books now and they will available late April or early May. A donation is made to APW from every sale.

Living Walls, a sample page from my upcoming book.

If you live in the USA, you can order here:
Art Inspired by Africa
An Artist Visits the African People & Wildlife Fund

If you live outside the USA, drop me an email or leave a comment and I will let you know shipping costs for your country.

Pre-order Your Signed Copy for US$35 before April 30, 2015.

Alison Nicholls’ new Book featuring Art from Tanzania

Book Details:
This is the 1st book in my Art Inspired by Africa series, and it features images of art created as a result of my visits to the African People & Wildlife Fund (APW) in Tanzania. There are full-page images of my field sketches and studio paintings, all accompanied by personal notes or journal excerpts. The foreword is by Dr. Laly Lichtenfeld, APW Executive Director, and other APW staff have also contributed to their comments to the book. Photographs and text explain specific APW programs on the Maasai Steppe and my work with local school children. The 46-page book is printed on full-color premium lustre paper, in a softcover 8×10″ landscape format. A donation is made to APW from every sale.

Congratulations to Ray Brown! (check out his amazing graphic art using the link).
Learn more about the African People & Wildlife Fund in Tanzania.
Until next time…
Take care
Alison

www.ArtInspiredbyAfrica.com
Donating to African conservation from every sale.