Welcome to Explore African Art where you will find high quality African art at affordable prices. All the paintings you see here are hand painted in Africa by highly skilled artists.

Our exclusive range of paintings will add character and instantly brighten up any wall. Whether you are looking for an oil painting for a children’s room or a subtle inspirational picture for your lounge, we have numerous styles to suit all tastes and budgets.

Browsing through the categories you will find Tinga Tinga, Masai Art and Contemporary African Art. The three categories have distinct styles and are painted using numerous techniques (see ‘about us’ for more details).

We pride ourselves on being loyal to all the artists we feature and in all cases offer a fair price for each and every painting. We are not here to exploit the great work done by the artists but by broadening the audience we hope to make art a sustainable living for these talented people.

We have regular contact with the artists we feature and will be adding more paintings to the website on a regular basis.

History of Tingatinga African Art

Edward Saidi Tingatinga was born in 1932 in southern Tanzania to a poor farming family. In 1968 he first started experimenting as a painter and he did this by using lost cost materials including bicycle paint. His artwork started to gather interest particularly in Europe and so he was able to become a full time artist. He had gained interest from artists and followers and these people later formed the Tingatinga Arts Co-operative Society (TACS).

In 1972 Tingatinga was accidently killed by a policeman but his art form lived on. The Tingatinga style of painting lived on through his various followers. Tingatinga paintings are now very prominent in Tanzania and Kenya and many other parts of East Africa.