About Inside African Art Started in 1999 and moved onto this new platform in 2015 when my old MS FrontPage platform was 'obsoleted' - Welcome!

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The Evolution and History of
Inside African Art

The beginning! Inside African Art 1999

The Original Website – Built in 1999. I didn’t know a lick of code or have even have a clue of how to build a website. Yet, in six long weeks – Inside African Art was born and alive and on the web! Inventory? 50 paintings.

After six years! Inside African Art 2005

By 2005, I was pretty good at using MS FrontPage for website editing and had accumulated in the neighborhood of 400 paintings in inventory.

IAA2005

After 11 years! Inside African Art 2010

By 2010, I had over a decade of experience and had already sold many thousands of paintings. I had 1.4 million hits on the website when I stopped keeping track. I was living in Kenya and shipping paintings all over the world. Life was good!

Inside African Art as it was in 2015. The end, and a new beginning!

In 2015, After 16 years, MS FrontPage was dumped (not supported), by all website hosting services. So I went to work learning Word Press – and here we are in January 2016 – a new website! Hope you like it!

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My flat in Nairobi, Kenya (1994)

Let me preface this by saying, I’ve always loved original art. In Africa I found the mother load!

Let’s see… I moved to Kenya in 1989, with a two-year contract to work with a government agency in Nairobi. Immediately on landing in Nairobi I was struck by the sights, sounds and smells of Africa. It didn’t take long for me to discover all of the incredible art galleries in town – and in a short time I found myself with quite an impressive collection of paintings and African art of all sorts.

In Rwanda with (former) Zaire on the other side of Lake Kivu

When my contract was over there was no way I was going to leave. In addition to my wonderful art collection, I had made many good friends and truly, I was in love with life in Kenya. It was during this time that things were brewing in Somalia – it was the ‘Blackhawk Down’ era – so I took a humanitarian relief job with a United Nations implementation agency and was sent to Bardera, Somalia. After my stint there, from which I am still shell-shocked to this day, I was sent to post-genocide Rwanda (on day 101 of the 100-day slaughter), where I spent two years managing the rehabilitation efforts in the southwest prefecture of Cyangugu.

With artist Joel Ngoko

All this time and everywhere I went I met local artists and continued to collect local art. After Rwanda I went to South Sudan for a couple more years – and finally when I had enough of war zones I started a perfect job in Nairobi as the Deputy Director of KickStart Kenya – the makers of the Money maker irrigation pump for very peaceful farmers… no war, no guns, no running – which was great because by this time I was married to a wonderful Kenyan woman, and she was pregnant!

It was time to settle down, enjoy life with my wife and kid – and build a website to market all of the fantastic art that I had collected from the many artists I had met in the course of the previous decade. Below you can see some of the artist with whom I work directly. From them, to me, to you. (continued below the gallery)

With artist Patrick Kinuthia

In life it’s not often that there is a ‘Win-Win-Win’ scenario – but we can make it happen here! You win because you receive a beautiful original painting from an Africa artist at a reasonable price, the artists win because using their skills and talent to make money and provide security (shelter, food, medicine, schooling), for their family is what they live for – ultimately they are the biggest winners. And I win because the small profit I make from the sale of paintings maintains this website by providing funds for the purchase of more paintings from more African artists, hosting services, website upgrades and shipping supplies. Win-Win-Win!
Below: Me with some of my friends, the artists:

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