Charity begins at home with Verandah Gallery

 The main benficiaries of this event every year are Emerald Hill Children’s Home and Emerald Hill School for the Deaf, both set among hill top msasa trees, a short stroll away from the old Rhodesian house that hosts the exhibition. This year is Verandah Gallery’s 21st anniversary.
Once every year in July, Woodholme Road in Emerald Hill throngs with motorcars and security guards, as art lovers make their way to the event that attracts hundreds of locals and Diasporans every year. Last week, by mid afternoon, the mood at this year’s exhibition was mellow as friends relaxed in the warm winter sunshine. Numerous red stickers indicated a brisk sale of paintings, and after viewing the art the priority was to enjoy a cup of tea and a chocolate brownie provided by the Soroptomist Vabatsiri Club, and to listen to the laid back Detema Jazz Band. Conversation rose and fell as old friends met, sometimes for the first time since the previous Verandah Gallery, and wine flowed from the wine bar.
Now was the time to leave the refreshment area and browse undisturbed the open-air display of the works of over 60 artists, set up on the green lawn of Anna Fleming’s garden.
Sheena Chadwick, one of Zimbabwe’s leading artists, left her native windswept Orkney Islands for this country in 1963, and began a love affair with the huge landscapes and rich earthy colours of Africa. Spending days and weeks in the bush, her subjects are often trees or rolling mountains and valleys. A striking picture at the exhibition is To the Waterhole, an unusual oil on canvas depiction of zebra wending their way down a mountainside through many shades of a red sunset glow towards a water hole, the colour and atmosphere reminiscent of an abstract painting by Rothko.
Wild Dogs Repose by the ever-popular artist, Daryl Nero was a charming study of this endangered species often referred to as the Painted Dog. Resting in the shade, this family group appears to be discussing the events of the day. Ever on the alert, however, an appointed guard keeps a lookout for predators.
Artists have always loved to paint cattle. In the 18th century, Thomas Gainsborough painted Landscapes with Cattle, and in 1966 Andy Warhol’s Cow Wallpaper went on display in New York’s Museum of Modern Art. English artist Jackie Spurrier says she started painting cows in 2002, after ‘a meaningful chat with a Hereford in a field in Norfolk’.
While cattle are valued above currency in Zimbabwe, they are also the muse for many an artist’s inspiration. Zimbabwean artist Itayi Njagu, who was educated in the Macheke and Buhera districts, loves to paint images depicting rural lifestyles. His restful painting entitled  Drinking Cattle on display at Verandah Gallery, shows Njagu’s love and respect for this peaceful yet powerful herbivore.
Nguni cattle, the mainstay of traditional Zulu culture and widely considered the most beautiful cattle in the world, featured in several large canvases painted by mid-career artist Tonely Ngwenya. This personable young man who was born in Highfield in 1976 is fascinated by the Nguni cattle, whose patterned and multi-coloured hides set them apart from other breeds.  His painting, Young Nguni Bulls, shows a harmonious group of well-fed young bulls on the verge of maturity, preparing to take their place in the herd.
Like most Zimbabwean artists, Ngwenya is a ‘two-jobber’, painting in his spare time and working as a graphic designer by day. Second to his passion for Nguni cattle comes his love for sleek, smooth and aggressive sports cars, in particular the twin-turbo Nissan 300ZX. There is always time to meet up with other rice (race inspired cosmetic enhancement) car enthusiasts for drifting, spinning and drives into the countryside.
The charity art exhibition at Verandah Gallery is over for another year, but notelets, post cards and calendars are still available. If the painting you really wanted this year got sold, make an early start next year and secure a work of art to grace your home for years to come.