I want to build a school of art - Oresegun Olumide

- Oresegun Olumide finds fame through through his talent which he discovered at age 4

- His paintings are so close to digitally taken photos that you mistake them for it

- The genius artists wants to be celebrated like Michelangelo

- He also want to be a professor of art

Nigerian creative painter Oresegun Olumide started drawing at age four and with the support of his parents his works have been internationally applauded.  But how did he achieved this? Some of his artworks found its way to the social media and under two weeks Oresegun became a sought after artists. And he wondered why now because he has been on social media for almost eight years but had never experienced the surge of attention his work has been giving him. Legit.ng visited Oresegun in his Ikorodu art studio. Explore with us.

Inspiration

My environment inspires me and I have always wanted to be great in life through my environment so that also motivates me.

Aside my lecturers, I try to look up to the great artists Picasso, Michelangelo and other world great artists and want to be like them. That desire to be like them also drives me to work harder. I always think if they can achieve more in their era when things were not digitalized I can achieve more this digital age.

Paintings

There are some things I take picture of before painting and some are things I see with my naked eyes. I believe my eyes are stronger than the camera. To me camera limits me but only help to capture what I cannot capture with my naked eyes at a go. For my still life paintings I don’t use the camera at all I only place the object before me and paint. I also do life paintings as well depending on how patient the sitter can be.

Naked paintings

If you look at the world greatest artists they work on human form. I tookm it as a challenge that if I can paint human in a life like form I can draw any other thing in 2D of 3D. if you go to Florenece of France you will see pictures of Michael Angelos and they are all unclad art work. I felt it is a challenge for me if I cannot do something like that in this era.

Water droplet paintings

I want people to familiarize themselves with my work; everybody understands water and the water paintings take me a long time to achieve.  I have been working on the popular water droplet arts for the past five years and I am still working to perfect it every day. I try to ensure that all my works now have a 3D effect or 2D effect and if I have not achieved that I don’t think I have a finished work.

Time spent on a painting

It takes a long time to get a finished work out of the studio. At times while painting I get bored so I leave it and move on to something else. There are layers upon layers of colours that I used on this piece. It takes thousands of layers of paint strokes to achieve this result. After which I try to achieve the translucent look of water then work on the water droplets. Each droplet takes five minutes of painting to be achieved. And some take longer depending on how big the droplets are.

As a realist artist at times a month plus and at times two months depending on the intricacies involved, mind you I am not working on a piece just to sell, my name will be engrossed on it and that is more important to me than the money I will be paid. So I should be able to put my soul and heart into it.

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Aspirations

I try to improve on my paintings every day and I want to achieve greatness with this work. In as much that there are professors in art, economics and other fields I want to achieve one with my creativity. One should be able to attain a professorship with his or her talent.

Growing up in a big family

I grew up in a family compound with many children around me and that helps me work with children.

Words of advice to upcoming artists

They should be focused in what they are doing and believe that they can achieve greatness. Be focused because passion comes with money but passion and hardwork first. With that they can be better than me.

Some upcoming artists send their piece of work to me for corrections and advice online which I do for free.  And I am thinking of having a school of art and I am working toward s that. And I believe I can achieve with the help of Nigerians.

International exhibitions

Yes,some of my works were exhibited in Nigeria House in Madrid in 2009 but then I was not as experienced as I am now. Now a lot of international collectors, galleries and agents are coming.

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Nigerian government on paintings

They should give aids and grants. They can organize competitions too as arts can help take the youths away from social vices.

Challenges

Not much because art is in me. You know there are a lot of footballers but you can only find one Messi. What drives Messi drives me and that is passion.

Source: Legit.ng