He started painting as a child. He was one of twelve children. All the children, he recalls had some creative interest or the other. Everyone did something with their hands. His oldest brother liked to draw, and Elungat followed in his footsteps.
He drew with his brother’s discarded paper and drawing tools. He drew all the time. By high school he had decided he wanted to be a painter and dropped out of school to become an artist. An Uncle introduced him to the artists at the National Museum in Nairobi. The artists operated from an artist’s studio provided by the National Museum. Elungat joined the artist studio and his life as an artist began. Michael, one of the resident artists, took a liking to him and immediately took the young Elungat under his wings.
Elungat would eventually move to a studio at Kobo Trust. The owner of Kobo Safari was organising a charity art event and a mutual friend had asked him to call Elungat . He did and Elungat agreed to contribute an artwork for the event. They talked some more and met at the Kobo Safari office. Elungat fell in love with an open office that was part of the Safari office and thought it would make a great studio. He was given the space for free to use for as long as he wanted.
He painted from the studio for the next seven years and even after he left the studio became home to other artists and has become an artistic hub.
To understand Elungat’s women one would have to ignore all the regular constructs about culture, race. One would have to ignore all the barriers and see people as simply human – with dreams, hopes, aspirations …One would have to ignore the reality of our world. Or rather, soar above it
His subjects have no tribe, no race, no nationality. They are universal. Yet African. They both. African unconstrained by whatever cages the invents. Free to determine what they present to the world. Human. Truly human.
His women are timeless, unconstrained by geography. Their only mandate – to represent the best in each of us.