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Friday 3 January 2014

Soul Food Friday: A Brief Ethiopian Art Experience

On my way to Ghana, I had an overnight stay in Addis Ababa, as I flew by Ethiopian Airlines.  I have always wanted to go to Ethiopia and was sad that I could only get a snapshot of the city in the dark, and at an ungodly hour of the morning on the way back to the airport to continue on to Accra.

However, the hotel I was put up in for the night had a great range of paintings on display.  I happened to be installed on the top floor, and as I walked down the flights of stairs to the dining room I was able to discover all this great art.  I am glad I decided not to be lazy and take the lift.  Here are the paintings (click on each picture to enlargen):

These paintings look like they have been drawn in pencil rather than painted with a brush.  I have never seen anything like it before, I had to stare at them for a while to understand what technique and medium was used to create these beautiful scenes.




I like the white washed background in these in order to make the vibrant colours pop.  This style is very common all over East Africa I have found.  




This was the only abstract painting I found.  It really jumped out at me and I am still trying to figure out what it is saying.


These are in a very classic European style.



This style was my favourite. It feels very ancient, like something you would find in an old temple, castle, fort or an ornament like a vase or something fashioned out of wood (like a wardrobe) or stone.  There is a visceral, ethereal, feminine  warmth and strength in beauty that I felt looking at these ones.




If you liked this check out other posts in the Art and Zarty Farty tags.



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