By Pauline Odhiambo
When it comes to painting representational portraits of his people, Nigerian artist Barry Yusufu has the winning formula.
The 28-year old painter’s creativity involves mixing coffee with charcoal to create a unique pigment for his canvas – a method he admittedly discovered by accident but perfectly captures his concepts.
“I mostly paint black figures because I'm from Nigeria, and it makes sense that I paint the Nigerian experience. But Africans have not always not been depicted the right way even in historical texts, so my goal as an artist is to make sure we look exalted and well-represented,” Yusufu tells TRT Afrika.
The bronze-gold skin tones of his subjects are indeed reminiscent of glorious statues and sculptures of a distant era but nonetheless capture the essence of contemporary characters in his artworks.
Humble beginnings
“I’ve always painted my friends, my neighbours and other everyday people I encounter while going about my day,” Yusufu, a self-taught artist, states.
“To me, everyone is important because I create a bond with all these people and when I show them the finished work, they are very excited to know that their portraits could eventually be displayed in a museum where crowds of people will see them, or on the walls of wonderful home in different parts of the world.”
Though many of Yusufu paintings now sell for thousands of dollars, there were times when he could not afford the art materials he needed to create.
“I started using coffee on canvas when I ran out of paint one day and didn’t have the money to buy more. Coffee in Nigeria is quite cheap, so I bought about three sachets and mixed the granules with water to use as paint,” the 28-year old recounts.
“That desperate moment turned out to be the best way I could depict my people because it gave my work a softer and soothing feel. The international art market really responded well to this style.”
People of the sun
Yusufu says the bronze glow of his artwork serves to showcase African legacy to worldwide communities.
Among other paintings, his series ‘Behold, Sun’s People’ is an exploration of this heritage.
“We come from royalty and great wealth, a continent that is rich in resources mostly enjoyed by the rest of world. Part of my responsibility as an artist is to express through portraiture African wealth in its different forms,” the self-taught artist proclaims.
His oil and acrylic on canvas creations accentuate his subjects Afrocentric features in a manner that elevates their ethereal appeal.
Twin dynamic
His painting ‘Sister’s Style’ is a nod to Nigeria’s Igbo-Ora community which boasts one of the highest rates of twin births worldwide.
The global average birth rate for twins is around 12 per 1,000 births, but in Igbo-Ora, it is closer to 50 per 1,000.
“For this piece, I took photographs of one person twice, then painted them to look different but the resemblance is still there. My goal was to demonstrate how, in many cases, one twin many seem calm and the other more energetic. It is an interesting dynamics” Yusufu tells TRT Afrika.
“In some cultures, twins were seen as a bad omen, and would often be abandoned or killed. That’s fortunately not the reality today where twins are openly celebrated and praised for their unique abilities.”
Love letters
From his body of work titled ‘In Loving Memory of Love,’ the artist shows some of the universal stories that serve as the ‘memory stamps’ of life.
A painting he titled ‘I wait to hear from you’ shows a female subject staring forlornly into the distance, her upper body leaning on table, and with a stamped envelope next to her face.
“This a story of lady waiting for her husband to come back from war. He writes of his experiences, and she looks forward to receiving his letters and longs for his return,” Yusufu explains.
“Many of us can remember certain times in our lives where someone showed us love and looked out for us. It is a feeling that almost everyone can relate to,” says the artist.
“Unfortunately, conversations nowadays feel strained and awkward especially with the advent of social media. We are intentional about reaching out to people like we used to in the days when writing letters was one of the best ways to communicate our feelings,” he tells TRT Afrika.
“The world has become smaller, but we've grown farther away from each other.” ‘A Chrysanthemum For You’ and ‘A Bracelet of Pearls’ are two of Yusufu paintings also inspired by the idea of love.
The full picture
Although, he has always been able to draw, Yusufu got serious about art in 2017 when he did a portrait of his girlfriend.
“Her reaction was priceless because she said it felt as if the portrait I had sketched of her could come to life and step off the canvas,” Yusufu recounts.
He is presently studying his masters in fine arts in the United Kingdom, a position he gained solely on the merit of his spectacular artwork.
His advice to aspiring artists: “You don’t need fancy materials to start, use whatever is available. There’s no need to have the full picture of the kind of artist you’ll be. Just start, and the rest will work itself out.”
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