Artist Study – How to Make Edward Saidi Tingatinga Art

Our Artist Inspiration is Edward Saidi Tingatinga and other Tingatinga artists

Each day, I will share an artist’s work that will inspire our art making. Its super important to look at other artist’s work to give us new ideas we might never have thought of, to help us understand art as a whole subject, and to encourage us to try new mediums and styles! Even the very best artists were inspired by another artist before them…

Today, our artist is Edward Saidi Tingatinga. You can read his story here. You might recognise the name Tinga Tinga from the CBeebies cartoon Tinga Tinga tales, and yes, the animation is directly inspired by Tingatinga’s artwork! Tingatinga was a Tanzanian artist who began making art from basic materials like bicycle paint and broken bits of ceramics. He makes bright and bold artwork that often shows African landscapes and animals.

He also trained other artists to paint like him, and there is still a cooperative of African artists that produce this type of work.

What do you like about these pictures? I love how colourful they are, and I enjoy the repeated pattens in them. With the bold lines, patterns and colours, they remind me a little of Britto’s work, that we looked at yesterday. What do you think?

Tingatinga art is the perfect art to study when exploring African Animals. If you like this art, perhaps you could print one off and stick it in your journal, or have a go at making one yourself?

Feeling Inspired?

Here are some ways to make a Tingatinga style picture!

Use strips of patterned paper like Small Hands Big Art did in their zebra picture! This would work for a tiger too!

Use a cotton bud or cork to print circles on your animals like this Gecko from Craft N Home – Cheetahs, Hyenas and Leopards would be good for this one!

Or make a Lion or Giraffe using scraps of paper and other bits you have lying around at home, in true Tingatinga style!