Sarara: Drawing in the Samburu, Northern Kenya
In September last year I had the utter privilege of working as Artist in Residence at Sarara, an ecolodge in the heart of the northern frontier of Kenya in the Samburu, in the Namunyak Conservancy. The story of Sarara has become a flagship model for conservation on community land across Africa and I was incredibly lucky to be invited there as artist in residence to draw for the camp and guests, and collect inspiration for future work projects. For me it was time to pause and think, to draw in a deeply inspiring ancient wild landscape surrounded by wild things and above all to learn from a hugely inspiring team.
Over a few years I have had some wonderful experiences in Kenya, travelling to conservancies to encounter and draw wildlife and meet magic people who are marked by the land and the wildlife they share this land with. Sarara sits in Kenya’s northern frontier, about an hour’s flight by small plane from Nairobi. I had heard stories before I arrived that Sarara was a very, very special place and that it would become my favourite place and now it is very easy to say it has marked my heart.
Sarara sits in Namunyak Conservancy, an area of 850,000 acres of wilderness in the Mathews Range. The Namunyak Conservancy is home to nomadic Samburu pastoralists, Kenya’s second largest elephant population, Kenya’s largest population of Reticulated giraffe, as well as endangered Grévy’s Zebra, hyena, kudu lion, and leopard. The ancient land, wilderness and community that inhabits it was a huge pull and inspiration for my work.
The unique and special story of Sarara is one best told by the incredibly inspiring people behind this place and I encourage you to learn more about all of the fantastic work they have done and continue to do and the very special community they work with. I have included all of their information below at the end of this piece.
From my arrival in camp I was immersed within this very special and unique community, family and lands. My days were filled with the most wonderful abundance of wildlife, woken daily by a troop of Vervet running across my tent from their Acacia tree home outside my tent and taking their place on top of the roof above the outdoor shower. A pair of hornbills in residence going about their daily morning rituals and as ever the utter pleasure and chorus of sounds when the land wakes up in the sub Saharan African bush. At Sarara Camp, giraffes gracefully wander the paths to the main camp and my new studio set up was perched with my easel just above the watering hole, where main camp sits. Looking across the valley onto the Mathews mountain range, the valley floor stretches out into a bowl with the watering hole just below.
That watering hole served up a daily dose of the most intense inspiration, within an hour I could see a different elephant family, an abundance of reticulated giraffe, baboon troops, impala and my absolute favourite, the elusive and majestic lesser spotted kudu and the most extraordinary bird life. Very busy Hornbills, hords of Vulture guineafowl and boisterous D’Arnaud’s barbets. I was hugely aware of how privileged an experience this was and one guest very wonderfully questioned ‘was my work to just sit all day and draw elephants’. This was absolutely my work and what a huge privilege that was. To spend time to sit and witness these incredibly special animals, to have a brief glimpse into their daily journey, family dynamics and as an artist in awe to see up close their physicality, power, subtleties, movements and textures and their wild.
The work that I created there was a combination of sketches and more developed working drawings to stay in Kenya for the camps. From this research and works I will return to the studio and begin some larger scale works inspired by the moments witnessed, the ancient connection of mark making and animal representation and the extraordinary abundance of wildlife in the Sarara valley and the wider Samburu.
Alongside drawing the abundant wildlife, I also worked on a project for the camp to produce charcoal illustrations of the Sarara Singing Wells. The Samburu are pastoralists and with water a very precious resource in these dry lands, the Samburu warriors lead their livestock daily to dig for water in deep wells.
Charcoal as a medium lends itself so well to expressive and intuitive mark marking and it was a challenge and privilege to draw the Samburu with their livestock and spend time witnessing this daily ritual in the community. I worked from charcoal sketches to draw dynamic scenes of the Samburu tribe’s ritual of watering the livestock daily from the hand dug wells in the Sarara riverbed. The drawing process was recorded by the Thige @roaminwild , in the Sarara tea and I hope they will serve to illustrate for guests at camp this very special cultural tradition.
Outside of the daily drawing, there were so many pinch me moments, early morning rides and witnessing wildlife from horse back was like nothing else and full moon celebrations with wonderful guests under a huge African night sky. However the visit to Reteti Elephant Sanctuary, a 40 minute drive from main camp was one of the most special experiences. Reteti Elephant Sanctuary rescues orphaned and abandoned wildlife with the aim to release rescued wildlife back into the conservancy. Seeing the dedication of the Samburu keepers and learning from so many stories of hope and care was humbling and I am in awe of all of the work that has gone in to build what Reteti is today.
There is also a huge amount of work across wildlife conservation, healthcare and education that the Sarara Foundation is working on that sits alongside the camps and I have included more information below.
When I left camp it look me a very long time to even get my head around what I had been immersed in. It is the most extraordinary community and nothing compares to the mark the spirit of Sarara and the people, wildlife and lands there have left on me. So thank you Sarara and to everyone who made this experience for me so special, thank you for the most magic time. I have learnt so much from everyone I met and it has inspired and moved me so much seeing the work you are doing, the community you support and the way that community supports this very special ecosystem. What an utter privilege.
If you have got this far I urge you to look up the very special work of Katie and Jeremy and the whole team at Sarara, Reteti and the Sarara Foundation and if you are interested in supporting the work they are doing I have included the links below. We all need to hear and be involved with good and inspiring stories, people and projects in this world if we have the capacity and this is all of that in abundance.
@reteti - Reteti Elephant Sanctuary
@sarara
@sararafoundation
@roaminwild - Thige Njuguna