DALE WEBSTER: FROM PHILOSOPHER TO MASTERFUL PORTRAIT PAINTER

HOW DID DALE WEBSTER MORPH FROM BEING A PHILOSOPHER AND ART HISTORIAN TO BEING A MASTERFUL PORTRAIT PAINTER, A PAINTER OF PAINTERS?

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (April 2016) 

Despite his teaching philosophy for more than a decade both in UK and West Africa, and despite his dropping out of St. Martin’s School of Art after just a year, there’s little doubt that Dale Webster was destined to become a professional painter, even an artist’s artist.

(L-R) Mixed media artist Kamal Shah, painter Beatrice Wanjiku Njoroge and Shabu Mwangi painted by Dale

He’s taken his time getting round to what any good fortune teller could have foreseen back when he first went to one of UK’s best art schools back in the 1970s.

BBC Producer and the artist's wife Jackie Webster first met in West Yorkshire, UK  

But then he got intrigued with ideas and the theoretical gymnastics that philosophers go through. He studied fine art together with philosophy for several years at Leeds University and at University of California, Berkeley.

MASK Founder Alla, painter James Mbuthia and Sculptor Chelenge van Rampelberg all painted by Dale

But while he might have dabbled with painting during those years, once he got out on the job market, he identified as a philosopher and university lecturer.

It’s only been since he came to Kenya with his family nearly a decade ago that Dale stopped dabbling and began to take himself seriously as a painter.

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           Kenyan artists and friends of the arts at Dale's second solo exhibition at Red Hill Gallery

His transformation from philosopher to full-time painter is a process that’s still underway. But if one can get to Red Hill Gallery and see his latest exhibition of portraits (which opened last Sunday), you’ll see that Dale was not only destined to be a painter; he also got here just in time to be part of what some have called a ‘renaissance’ in Kenyan art!

Kenyan artists (L-R) Peter Ngugi, Jackie Karuti and Richard Kimathi

Dale has been doing portraiture practically from the time he picked up a paint brush back in 2007 and had his first Nairobi exhibition at his daughters’ school.

 Kenyan artist Paul Onditi and Gor Soudan

“I found the diversity of people living in Nairobi fascinating,” he told Business Daily shortly before the opening of his current Red Hill show. It was that interest in the city’s wide variety of peoples that led to his having his first public exhibition at Le Rustique Restaurant in Westlands.

Kenyan Events Photographer Peter Kariuki

His subsequent exhibitions have taken place everywhere from the Ramona Museum, Le Rustique and Village Market to University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.

Kenyan artist and arts writer Zihan Kassm

But his shows at Red Hill are undoubtedly the ones most memorable and meaningful, first, because they feature familiar faces, fellow artists who may not be well known to the wider public but who are definitely members of the current community of Kenyan ‘creatives’ who are actively involved in expressing their own artistic initiatives.

The Art Space Gallerist Wambui Kamiru-Collymore with the brother of Jacke Webster and former philosophy student of Dale's

The other reason his Red Hill exhibitions are to my mind so significant is because of the historical context in which Kenyans are living through right now. For something creatively cathartic seems to be underway in the local art world. But there are few witnesses to this profound change in the local art scene who are documenting what’s going on. My view is that Dale is one of those few.

Painters Jimnah Kimani and Tom Mboya

In his first exhibition at Red Hill two years ago, he had already begun visually chronicling some of our most prominent Kenyan artists, starting with Peter Elungat, Michael Soi, Thom Ogonga, Maggie Otieno, Patrick Mukabi and Beatrice Wanjiku among others.

Painters Fitsum and Kamicha with American photographer Bruce

In this second Red Hill show, he continues on what seems to be a quest to visually capture even more Kenyan artists as well as friends of the arts who he’s gotten to know since that first exhibition.

Art Critic for The East African, Frank Whalley

That’s why he’s included everyone from Peterson Kamwathi, Paul Onditi, Gor Soudan and Chelenge van Rampelberg to Jackie Karuti, Jimnah Kimani, Wambui Kamiru, John Kamicha and Richard Kimathi just to name a few of the exceptional Kenyan artists whose portraits are up at Hellmuth and Erica Rossler-Musch’s gallery.

Erica Rossler-Musch with United States International University professor Dr. D. King

There are questions some critics may ask about the realism of every painting. For instance, James Mbuthia’s struck me as being too stoical compared to the jovial artist that I know. Wambui Kamiru’s portrait is beautiful but a bit too placid to serve as an accurate expression of The Art Space gallerist. But at the same time, Dale captured a hint of Paul Onditi’s ironic sense of humor in his portrait. And for me he’s spot on with his visualization of Zihan, Beatrice and Kamicha as well as many others.

Red Hill Gallerist Hellmuth Rossler-Musch has hosted Dale Webster's solo exhibition twice in the past two years

Some critics have suggested Dale’s usage of photographs makes his paintings one-dimensional, but I disagree. I feel he’s not the first exceptional artist to use photography as a part of the painting process. What’s more, it would seem it’s his first-hand knowledge of these artists that enables him to give nearly all his portraits a depth of feeling that goes beyond the superficial. One feels he tries to capture something more soulful about every artist that he chooses to paint.