Creating an Imigongo Painting

Well… an imitation of an Imigongo painting really.

Looking at the photos and the beautiful geometric paintings of Imigongo left me wishing I could make one. I knew that the cow dung part would have to be out of the equation just because I live in a city, in a small apartment. Even if I got to a farm … what was I supposed to say… may I have some of your cow’s dung?! It is for a project! And even if I got it… the smell in my apartment… my poor neighbors! ^ ^

So… I looked online and saw people making paste for paintings which is kind of the same concept… so I decided to look within my apartment for what I had that could make a paste. I found Artist White Gesso, White Gesso paint, vinyl spackling compound and white baby talc. So I tried making a mix of the these!

I also found a corkboard that I thought would be a great base for the painting.

No matter how much I stirred it, it was not smooth…

It was so messy! I tried smoothing it with a spatula…

…with my hands…

And I gave up here…

…And took it all off!

I made a second mix with more talk powder … and it became so much better and then I decided to build directly with the spackling compound. I think that the best bet is using plaster of paris if you have it… I saw it in this video… it looks so smooth:

Anyways, with the spackling compound I got a better result. I started with this:

…and got to this…

Then I used a sanding paper and brought it to this:

To be honest I was not a 100% satisfied, but I figured it was OK to be my first! So then I painted it:

This was the final product:

After trying this I have to say that I really admire what Rwandan artists are able to accomplish with their cow dung paste… their work is so smooth and accurate.

Just amazing!