Tingatinga Paintings

Background Tanzania's most well-known style of painting was started in the 1960s by Edward Saidi Tingatinga, after whom it is named. Tingatinga was born in 1932 in a village called Namochelia, in southern Tanzania, near the border of northern Mozambique. Edward Tingatinga was born into a very poor family. His mother, Agnes Binti Ntembo, was a Christian, while his father, Saidi Tingatinga, was a Muslim. That is why the he was given both a Christian name (Edward) and a Muslim name (Saidi).

Career After only four years of primary school, Tingatinga left home in the 1950’sand headed north to Tanga, where he worked on a sisal plantation, and then later to Dar es Salaam, where he worked as domestic help. During this time, Tingatinga began to seek creative outlets and additional income, first as a member of a musical group, and later as a self-taught artist.

Since he could not afford to purchase art supplies, he began with scavenged materials, painting on discarded ceiling boards using cans of bicycle enamel, household paint and old paintbrushes. Despite this unpromising beginning, he quickly developed a new and unique artistic style. His simple, colorful, crowded paintings depicted fantastic animals and birds, dancing tribes people and scenes of village life.

In 1970 he married Agatha Mataka In 1970 he married Agatha Mataka. Shortly after, his wife began helping him sell his paintings. The paintings sold well and Tingatinga recruited members of his family to copy them. Eventually, Tingatinga's paintings became very popular among European residents and tourists, so that he was able to work full-time as an artist. As his success grew, Tingatinga began to attract more and more students, wanting to learn and imitate his style.

Tingatina Style Edward Tingatinga painted single animals on colorful , monochrome backgrounds. The animals were painted in a simple, symbolical way. Both the colors and shapes do not correspond to the animals in the real world. Black antelope, white and black giraffe, white and black leopard are some of examples. The shape of body parts was further simplified so no details are shown.

3 more Features of Tinga Tinga Paintings #1. Highly Decorative Patterns: The "secret" of Tingatinga paintings are the dots. You will find them on almost every painting. The most popular of all animals is guinea fowl due to many dots on feathers. The second most popular animal is leopard. Again, you see the dots. To summarize it - the repetitive pattern is the underlying recipe for cooking up a good Tingatinga painting.

#2 Using a Special Technique - Enamel Colors: Another important feature of Tingatinga art is that the paintings are created with enamel colors. So what are enamel colors? They are industrial color paints (most often used to paint houses, bicycles, and metal surfaces), not the types of paints (oils, acrylics, etc.)used by most artists. They give the paintings a more shiny quality than other paints.

#3 A Black Border - Not Any More! Originally, there was a painted black border or black wooden board placed on every Tingatinga painting. That is not the case anymore. Today’s Tingatinga artists often omit the border.

A tragic ending: Then, one night in 1972, Tingatinga was mistaken for an escaping thief and fatally shot by the police. He was just 40 years old. Following his death, his students organized themselves into the Tingatinga Partnership, which in 1990 was renamed the Tingatinga Arts Cooperative Society. This cooperative, which numbers about 50 members (including two women), is still based near Morogoro Stores in Dar es Salaam, where Tingatinga's works were originally sold.

To get started Get your artwork You will need an: Apron Water bucket Paint brushes, large flat for adding the background, small for details and outlining) Paper palette (use a small amount of paint, about a dime size) You could always get more.

Creating Your Tingating Painting Create a multi-toned background using a wash or layering color and trim the edges of the board Use directional brush strokes to create interest Create an animal inspired by Tingatinga Add Tingatinga dots Outline your animal in any color (use a small wet brush) To earn a 4 or 5 - Add additional animals, foliage (trees, branches, leaves, flowers) as well as birds. You are the artist! Only you can decide when the work is complete, but this is the time to be diligent and work hard but remember…… Details! Details! Details! Make the painting your unique work of Art!

Time to clean up! Put your painting on the drying rack. Clean the water buckets & brushes in the hall. Clean the brushes with a small amount of soap in the palm of your hand. Wash the hall sink when you are finished. Dispose of the paper palettes unless otherwise directed. Clean your desk with a wipe. Be seated and get ready to be dismissed.

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