Lovemore Kambudzi Paints a Zimbabwe We Love

Lovemore Kambudzi in front of one of his paintings

Finally!!! That is the thought that imprinted the expression on my face when I met Lovemore Kambudzi. Finally. After seeing his paintings for so many years I met the man who turns daubs of colour- always on large canvases- into realistic depictions of scenes from every day Zimbabwe life.

Some of the guests at the launch admire some of Lovemore's paintings

^ Some of the guests at the 696 Exhibition launch admire some of Lovemore’s paintings.

The place was the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. The event was the launch of the 696 Exhibition featuring paintings by Lovemore, Patrick Makumbe and Misheck Masamvu on 12th July 2008.

More guests at the Launch

^ More guests at the launch admire the paintings.

Lovemore paints happy and sad scenes that capture the hardships that Zimbabweans face and the triumphs they achieve over these undesirables. And yet, every painting captures a Zimbabwe that we love.

Lovemore's paintings are awe inspiring

^ Lovemore’s paintings are awe inspiring and capture the essence of every day events with amazing detail.

Whether it’s his painting of the Beitbridge boarder post, or the one about boarder jumpers- or the prison yard soccer scene, there is something in each one that screams YES! This is our Zimbabwe, unique in its every nuance of life.

Lovemore and a friend admire one of the paintings

^ Lovemore and a friend admire one of the paintings.

Lovemore is a graduate of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe’s BAT Visual Arts Studio, located in Mbare. When he finished college in 1995 he immediately set out to make a living from his new skills. He had a good mentor to emulate- His father, Livingstone Kambudzi, was also a painter.

Lovemore portrays a soccer game in a prison yard

^ Lovemore portrays a soccer game in a prison yard.

In a chat with him, he revealed to me how initially after his O’ Levels he looked for work but could not find it. He then decided to continue his studies and ended up at the BAT Visual Arts Studio.

Border Jumpers

^ A painting showing boarder jumpers in action.

Lovemore says it takes him up to three weeks to finish a painting. His work has been sold all over the world and at the tender age of 30 he is one of a handful of artists in Zimbabwe making a living from painting.

I’ve always wondered what his style of painting is called but I forgot to ask him. So I did some research on the Internet and found this: “Lovemore has a very individual style of painting, called a variant of Seraut’s pointillism, or tachism, with the application of diverse and contrasting large daubs of colour to make up the shapes.” I think that’s from a woman called Mai Palmberg. See her interview with Lovemore and his wife here.

Lovemore was born in Seke in 1978. He lives in Harare and is married to Nyasha Sigauke, who is also a painter.

Just in case you were wondering:

I found out what Pointillism and Tachism are and who this Saraut dude was:

Pointillism is a form of painting in which tiny dots of primary colours are used to generate secondary colours.
Tachism (alternativley spelt Tachisme) is derived from the French word tache which means stain. It was a French style of abstract painting in the 1940s and 1950s.
George Seraut (1859-1891) was a French Pointillist painter.

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