James Nyika

Gateways, Original Painting

2020

Artist Comments
"The islands and rocky outcrops of the rivers and coastlines in Vietnam lend themselves to some amazing scenery. They seem to act as the posts of many gateways to be traversed," shares artist James Nyika. "I tried to capture the sheer breadth of a scene that can easily overwhelm but is also very rich in the vibrant colors of nature - the trees, rocks, and dense cover. I wanted to convey a feeling of the awesome size of nature, relative to man's creations."

About the Artist
Artist James Nyika paints the glowing atmosphere of cities across the world. As a child growing up in Kenya, he found art materials at the student bookshop and also borrowed just about every art history volume from the British Council library in Nairobi. "I checked out the same books over and over just to stare at the art, to try and understand how it was created," says James. With family encouragement to study engineering, James moved to the U.S. and immersed himself in science studies at Boston University. Several years after embarking on a tech career, he set a goal to create at least one painting a week, never throwing away any works and learning as much as possible in his off hours. Today, James still balances his full-time career designing large software systems with his prolific output as a painter. "Painting is a great antidote to the regularity of a computing profession and I really value it for the uncertainty that it brings - something frowned upon when writing code."

Words that describe this painting: river, Vietnam, boats, rocks, water, Southeast Asia, islands, sunset, evening, dusk, sky, travel, tropical, impressionism, seascape, representational, watercolor painting, blue

Gateways
James Nyika
Watercolor painting on paper
Ready to frame
One-of-a-kind
Signed on front
2020
18 in. h x 24 in. w
0 lbs. 1 oz.