 I just found myself using yellow a lot, and when I went down to research why exactly this is coming out of me, then I can try to do a flashback in my life. There was a time when I was not really spiritual, but when I got spiritual, this came out naturally that I was using yellow. A lot of it. Alright, so how long does it take you to come up with one particular figure? For example, this one is too large, if I may say. It's huge, and sometimes it requires you to do a little correction here and there. As you will hear from many other artists, like the best artists that ever existed, people like Leonardo da Vinci, they would still say that most of the perfect works are incomplete, meaning it really never takes time to create art, but it takes patience. Where do you find your materials from? Where do you get your materials from? Most of the time I buy materials from Textbook Center using acrylic paints, which I buy mostly from Textbook Center, and I also buy canvas from River Text, and I take my wood from my nearest timber yard. Drawing of course entails maybe the use of a pencil as you do your sketch work. Are there different pencils for this work, maybe for shading some lights, or maybe just for highlighting? Sorry I did not categorically specify the stage of art, which this is painting, which really much deals with paint and brush and canvas. The primary stage which is sketching is what you're talking about. It deals with a lot of pencils, and I have a lot of sketches for these works. Most of them have to be sketched first. Before you come up with something good like this, you have to sketch it. It's like a plan for a house. Alright, let's talk about that particular photo that our viewer has on the screen right now. What inspired you to drawing that photo? Well, that's a close friend of mine, and it was a commissioned piece. This is when some client comes to you and tells you, wow, you do so nice pictures, I want one for myself. And I choose, I go through their folio and pick up the best pictures that they probably have, and do work out of it. Alright, I can see the colors are coming out real well. Maybe we can have a look at the next photograph. Yeah, that one. I liked that one. What's with the red top? Well, that's called oil pastel. Sometimes I mix media. When you're cooking cake, you don't need to use flour only. You could mix a little bit of sugar, a little bit of lemon, and blah, blah, blah. Sometimes in art, it's like cooking. You have to mix a little bit of spice in there so that you make it appealing. That's what we call, it's an element of design, which is called, it's a principle of design actually, which is called contrast. Alright, for this particular lady, you decided to use black and white. Yeah. Why didn't you use color on her face and use black and white for the top, and maybe the yellow that you're talking about? Well, color doesn't change. Color doesn't change, your skin color doesn't change. Maybe if you try to change it, but you can change the color of your dress. Right. So, and sometimes to achieve certain levels of differences, I was trying to emphasize on the body and not the face. Yes. Let's have a look at the other one right there. You can see the sun rays and the tree. What inspired you to doing this photograph? Well, this is a commissioned piece, which I did it for the Christian Union of the Technical University of Kenya. And they needed a piece which was speaking about spiritual matters, like the love of God and so on. So the light, Jesus says that he's the way, the light and the life. So I chose light in this picture to represent what they wanted me to do. All right. Generally, what inspires you to doing this particular art? You chose this part of art. What inspires you? Well, I usually say this statement that every other person has been called to be a co-creator with God. So it inspires me so much if somebody can bring something out of themselves which expresses what they are. And that's exactly what God did when he created us. He brought us out of him. And so I'm inspired by God. Do you go with, maybe the clients and I come and I tell you what I want to get right. Do you go with my taste? You always have something for your clients in mind. I always do what the client wants. All right. Let's talk about capital. So many young people are interested in getting into this. I found friends of mine even drawing photos of every friend they have. They want to start a business, but capital is the problem. Where did you get your capital? I don't totally or entirely depend on a finite to provide my finances. I do other things like I make furniture. I design music art covers. I do interior design. So it comes from many streams rather. So all that the same person and still you're a student. How do you manage to do all these things and make sure that maybe this segment doesn't like underway the other one? Well, it's involving a lot of discipline that I had to cultivate in myself. You just have to stick to the plan and not change, but sometimes you have to be flexible. So I'd rather say it's discipline. Let's go back to money. Is this a business that I can start with a few coins? Well, if you have the talent, why not? It's a business that somebody can start with. How small does my capital have to be to start this particular business? Okay. Okay. Let me say if you want to start a serious art business, then you talk like you're putting up a shop. And that would cost you up to like 200,000. Because if you want to put up an art shop, you have to advertise yourself. You have to get yourself materials. You have to make the space appealing. It's like you're creating a gallery where you display your work. So rent would have to go into it. You'll have to pay bills for electricity. You'll have to buy materials. I mean, so it takes an estimate of 200,000. Okay. I'm assuming you don't do all this work alone. So have you employed people to maybe help you or have you partnered with people to make sure that this business is sustained? I don't really look at this career as money sources that we're speaking because sometimes it's not all about the money. But I have friends who we work along with. I have artists whom we spend time in school together. I have people whom I live with like Timon and Diego, who we really have enough time with. We share ideas. I ask him, is this appealing to your eyes or sometimes you need to listen to people's opinions so that you really understand where you're heading? You say you cannot recommend someone to enter into this particular line of business. You said it's not profitable. Why are you still doing it if it's not profitable? Well, as you have many fingers, some are not so useful sometimes. But that doesn't mean that you cut your finger off. So I'm not cutting this off because I know it's a long-term project. Art is like good wine. It stays and then it becomes best at its old state. So I'm sure that this is going to be worth your while in the future. It's going to be a fortune in the future. I'm not looking at what I'm going to put in my mouth today. I'm cutting in this because I've pictured ahead of me like 20, 25 years ahead of me. So what was your favorite, maybe picture that you've ever done? It's your favorite since you began this particular job. Wow. And is it here? Maybe we can have a look at it. Oh no, it's gone. I don't have it here. I have two favorite pictures. What did it entail? It's called the River of Opportunities, which was covering, I think it's there on my Instagram handle. It covers trees with a golden river, which is weird. And the other one was called Sondu Miriu, which was also covered by the Sepharicum Calend for this month. So how much did you sell it for? It's not been sold yet, but it's being auctioned. I don't know what price. So how is it for you to come up with prices? Does it depend with the size or does it depend that the client wants to get? Well, prices depend on the artist, the size. A lot of many other things determine the price. All right. If I want to join you in this particular industry, what qualities do I need to satisfy? What skills do I need to have even before I start thinking I want to start drawing? Well, you first need love in you. You have to love it so that it comes out naturally. Everything that you love, you will be patient with it. You will be kind enough. You will not insist on wanting your own to come out, but it will naturally come out of you. If you love it, you will do it to your best, and things will just come out like a spring. Let's talk about the challenges. Every particular business has got its own challenges in its dimension. So what challenges have you had as you go through this line of business day in, day out? The piece which is right behind me can explain it all. I call it The Mountains of Life. This piece behind every layer of paint on this piece, there was a painting, at least two. The first time I painted a sea on it, I thought it wasn't really looking good, so I brushed it off and started painting something different. I painted a cityscape on it, then I brushed it off again, and now here we have a mountain. So it's generally explaining that sometimes in art, you think you're putting the right concept down, but it's not exactly what you want to bring out. So sometimes you'll have a difficulty of coming up with a perfect composition for what you think is going to be good for your audience. That's one problem. Another problem is sometimes it takes too long to sell pieces because nobody's really giving attention to you, because probably you don't have a name out there for art. And sometimes also, especially the past two years, the materials are really short in price, so they're really expensive, and sometimes I've used really expensive materials, and somebody tells you, you know, I have this amount, but if you compare it with the materials you've used, it's way expensive. So I think there are many other problems which I cannot speak about right now, because it will be a long list. Alright, can you adjust to demand if maybe clients want to get maybe 20 figures for maybe tomorrow? How adjustable is that for you? That's where my friend's coming. That is whom we do work with. If somebody told me they wanted 20 pieces today, I would call in my two friends, but I would do like 15 and then let them do the five. Alright. So in the next like two, three years, where do I expect to see or carry a Othiambos art? I guess one of my pieces should be in your house, probably. Yes, it has to be my photo. Okay, that's a deal. Well, with my art career in the next two or three years, I shall have developed my technique to perfection, because I've picked up really fast, because most of these are put up in less than six months. Alright. And in the next two years, I think only God knows where I'll be. It's like the idea where you want to be. Okay, I want to be everywhere, because if this year I found myself on, I found myself the youngest artist featured in the 2019 SafariCom, this is my Kenya competition, then it means that in the next two years, I'm going to be a big fish. Alright. So every particular challenge that you faced in this particular sector, where do you think the government should step in to enable young people to be willing to be part of this particular platform? The government is doing everything possible to make sure that everything goes well for the youth, and I'm glad the curriculum has changed, because you see, this is a talent which I could have developed way back in the past, but I didn't, because it was not there in that curriculum. I mean, if it was, it was not really emphasized. So I think the government already is putting in good work. That's a thumbs up to our leaders there, including the president, because he's doing good job, his team have made sure that people are coming back to their roots, which was there in the past. Now, my single request is that they should really emphasize on this. If they are serious about it, it could take us places, because up in the other countries like U.S., these are things which are taken really seriously, and they stream a lot of money from them to the economy. Alright. Do you think this can take Kenya to the next level that we want to get to? That makes me ask you a question. You know Leonardo da Vinci? What if he was a Kenyan? That's food for thought. So I think this is something giving a try for the government. Alright. Maybe your final word to any young person that is out there and they're willing to indulge into this particular line of business, make money out of it, make a living out of it, your final word to that young person is they're waiting for you to inspire them. Well, to anyone who is willing to get into this, my word would be, look for God and He will show you the way, because this did not come out of me. I was lost somewhere in the world and when I saw the light, I started appreciating nature and I'm thinking that in the next few years I'll be preaching using paintings. Yeah. Thank you so much for coming through. It has been a pleasure to host you. There has been Okia Othiombo, a fine artist and who is doing quite a good job in the industry. He has told you not to give up, use what you have to start the idea that you have in mind and always remember to put God first in everything. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. My name is Yvonne Anula and coming up next is the Forex Report.