Njeri
Kamau

My work begins with the people I see every day. The conductor who recognises me on the 46. The woman who sells sukuma at the corner of Muthithi and Westlands Road. My grandmother, whose hands I painted on the morning after she died.

I am interested in the slow, ordinary acts of holding a family together. Holding a city together. The painting is the long way of paying attention to a person, a route, a doorway. I take eleven days where a photograph takes a second, and the eleven days are the point.

I work in oil on linen for originals, and release small editions printed at Muraguri Studio in Westlands. I do not believe in unlimited editions. When the run is done, it is done.