By Ebele Orakpo

Artists and aspiring artists can now rest easy as cheaper alternatives to the costly art media have been discovered by one of their own, one of the pioneers of Female Artists Association of Nigeria (FAAN), Mrs. Ifeoma Perpetua Madumere.

A teacher at the Federal College of Education (Technical) Asaba, Delta State, Madumere wanted alternatives to traditional art media that will not only compare favourably with existing media but will be cheaper so as to encourage more people to go into art, make teaching/learning of art easier while making a mark in the art world. In this chat with Vanguard Learning, she spoke on what inspired her and the results she came up with. Excerpts:

Inspiration:
According to Mrs. Madumere who studied Fine and Applied Arts both at Bachelor’s and Master’s levels at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, she was inspired to go into this research to find a way of “reducing the pains of enthusiastic artists and students worldwide that have been facing the challenge of high costs of painting media.”

works done with cosmetics

She said what gave her the final push was watching manicurists at work. “Any time I watch manicurists doing their job, I see how the towels are stained and remain permanent so I began to think that it could work for art,” and so she began experimenting with cosmetics in art over a year ago.

The experiment:
During the experiments,Madumere discovered that cosmetics such as nail polish, eye shadow, lipstick, mascara, eye pencil, among others, apart from being “used to enhance the appearance of individuals, could be effectively used for creating art works especially painting and drawing.

She recalled that since the inception of art, many eras had come and gone, starting from the Stone Age (Paleolithic) to the present. “The cave artists used local media from their immediate environment for painting and drawing. As art gradually developed, new and modernized media such as oil colour, gouache, poster colour, water colour, pastel and pencil emerged and still in use till date. All these are inventions by our predecessors, how far have we gone to discover new media to make our era remarkable and unique?” she asked.

Madumere who sees innovation as a key to modern development said without it, the world will be stagnant.

Saving cost:
Madumere noted that “using cosmetics for painting and drawing is cheaper. “I bought different colours of cutex at N40 each whereas one tube of professional oil colour is N2,000 and you buy as many colours as you want. Eye shadow, a substitute for professional pastel costs between N250 and N300 while pastel goes for between N1,000 and N1,800 depending on size and it doesn’t contain all the colours. The eye shadow I used for the portrait was just N300,” she stated.

The beauty of the innovation:
“Nail polish is as good as oil colour, they have the same glossy effect and permanence on canvas. It can be blended but the only difference is that, nail polish requires quick application to avoid being congealed. Eye shadow has the same effect as chalk-pastel. Lip-stick and eye pencil are in the same line with wax crayon. Apart from nail polish, other media can be fixed with Artist Fixative for pastel, charcoal and pencil to make them permanent on cartridge paper, cardboard, chip-board among others,” she said. Continuing,

Madumere said; “It is amazing to see cosmetics which come in different brilliant colours, emerge on canvas and paper. Those who are deficient in colour mixing now have a way of escape because the items have interesting tints and shades of different colours ready for use. The most surprising thing is that one does not need to support cosmetics with any vehicle or medium outside the family before one achieves one’s objective. Interestingly, the pack of nail polish contains palette, brush and assorted colours as if it was originally planned for painting,” she enthused.

She noted that by this innovation, “people who have the notion that art is an expensive course and materials are not always within reach, can now see cheaper and more available media for painting and drawing.”