Unlike most emerging visual artistes and painters, who look to art collectives to nurture and showcase their talent, 27-year-old painter Serge Niyonsaba chose the other way –to go it alone, consequently turning his rented house in Nyamirambo into his painting studio.

He was just fifteen years of age, when the then budding artist started receiving apprenticeship from a friend in Rubavu, in the Western Province where Niyonsaba was raised. He regularly visited this friend with sketches and paintings for guidance and approval.

In 2007, with the skills acquired from his friend, Niyonsaba enrolled at the Nyundo Art School in Rubavu, from where he learnt to draw professionally.

He recapped his artistic journey to Moses Opobo...

Why did you choose to paint from home?

I work from home simply because I like to work in a place that is so calm. This helps me much to get inspiration.

The challenge of working from home is that some clients don’t like to come to my place because it’s not very accessible, and also they don’t even get the products easily when they want them.

What inspires your paintings?

I get inspired by society and the environment surrounding me.

What’s your favourite mode of painting?

I like doing portraits. I studied to draw portraits in high school, and after getting into the field I tried to draw as much as I can and posted my works on social networks like Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn then I would get feedback from the clients. That is how I enhanced my skills in portrait making.

What are some of the best paintings to your name?

The best paintings I made include the following; First Lady Jeannette Kagame’s, Cherie Blair’s (Tony Blair’s wife), and US President Barack Obama’s. I am planning to have my own gallery in Kigali soon. Right now I have a store at Ndamage’s house where I take some of my paintings but it is owned by someone else.

How did attending art school mould the painter in you?

For me it was another chance to start my artistic career afresh. Before, I did not know how to make the best art works with artistic proportion although I had the talent in me. After three years in Art school, I moved to Kigali to attend a training in multi-media at the Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST).

What did you do next after this training?

After the training it was now time to face the world. I stayed in Kigali with a brother and tried to find work to do. I tried my hand at ordinary design jobs for posters and billboards, but the money in design was not good. I lived with my brother for a year and half, then he asked me to try to find something to do instead of staying at home. I moved around to get a job, but it wasn’t easy to find a job in Kigali.

So I told him I had a talent of painting and it’s what I wanted to do. In order to demonstrate my ability and win my brother’s confidence, I took his picture and made a beautiful portrait out of it. I also made one for my pastor at the Nyamirambo Assemblies of God Church, free of charge. 

The one of the pastor was to make people in the church know that I was an artiste, and after seeing it, he (the pastor) was very happy. Soon, people started to know about my art.

What was your first major deal?

I had a chance meeting with an American woman around Lemigo Hotel and she gave me my first deal. She saw my abstract painting and was impressed, and promised to get me some clients, and she did. With the money coming in for the paintings, I decided to team up with an artiste friend, Onesime Sezerano, and find a common base for our work. I then left my brother’s house and paired up with my friend in Nyamirambo so as to develop my painting career further.