01 Mar 2021

Renowned painter, Wilson Ngoni says reception for his recently published book titled living with the brush is impressive although the coffee table book on paintings is a first of its kind.

Ngoni was speaking in an interview at a book signing session with his Maun fans on Saturday February 27.

He appreciated that reception for the book was remarkable so far although Batswana were known to lack a culture of reading.

“I appreciate the way people received my book which was released early December last year.

A lot of people bought it as Christmas presents while some companies bought in bulk,” he said.

Ngoni said the idea to compile a book on his paintings was birthed in 2017, but was shelved due to lack of finances.

Like many people of various professions the negative impact of COVID-19 affected his career as he depended on exhibitions for his art business.

“I had about 20 exhibitions to be done in about 13 countries around the world but were cancelled due to COVID-19,” he said.

As a result, Ngoni revisited the book idea and decided to publish living with the brush.

“Living with the Brush is a unique coffee table book, which is a form of an exhibition as it features about 126 of my masterpiece paintings from my 30 years career,” he said.

His art, he said was inspired by the rich culture of Africa and Botswana in particular as well as wildlife and mostly women. ENDS