A feature on the Florence Academy of Art (FAA) alumna Phoebe Stewart-Carter’s travels to Kenya to document Artisanal Small-scale Mining. This article was  authored by Elizabeth Ralph-Smith and was originally published on the FAA Collective Patreon. 

In a unique expedition to Kenya, FAA alumna, Phoebe Stewart-Carter embarked on a journey into the world of Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM). Phoebe’s mission was to capture the essence of ASM through plein air painting. Over ten days, she immersed herself in the Osiri Matanda mining community, producing artworks that not only depicted the physical process of gold mining but also the human stories and challenges of this small-scale mining community. Below, Phoebe offers a firsthand account of her experience and inspiration for this trip. We hope you find something valuable in Kenyan Gold!

“Migori Town isn’t exactly a tourist hotspot for those travelling within Kenya; there is no opportunity for safari, nor white sand beaches, however the capital town of Migori county does have something of great interest to me: ASM – Artisanal and Small-scale Mining.

From Nairobi, I travelled to Kisumu, a city on the banks of lake Victoria, and took a four hour taxi journey to my hotel in Migori – 20 kilometres north of the Tanzanian border. Every day for ten days I taxied 45 minutes with my plein-air gear to Osiri Matanda, an ASM mining community built on a gold vein. My goal was to record and represent in paint each stage of the mining process, from the ground to the marketplace, and the people whose livelihoods depend on it. In thirty degree heat —which felt like forty-five— I watched, learned, and painted for just over a week how gold is mined and processed in these small-scale gold mines.

My father has been working in mineral and metal supply chain sustainability for over a decade, and co-founded the charity TIF (The Impact Facility). The charity was created to fund projects which improve the productivity and safety of mining, to “empower mining communities to break the cycle of poverty, for good.” TIF has worked directly with mines in Osiri Matanda, and so I was able to utilise these connections to grant my access into the community there.

Product transparency is an important topic currently, and definitely one that interests me; where and how our food, clothes, electronics etc. are made and produced is becoming a greater concern to consumers. It can be startling to discover that your beef burger was factory farmed or your crop top was assembled with child labour —consumers are more and more interested to know if their purchases are supporting livelihoods and the environment or causing harm. It is the same reality with metals and minerals. Gold is used in high value luxury goods such as jewellery, but also heavily used in the electronics industry for its conducting abilities. You may not own gold earrings, but most everyone has a smartphone.

Unlike large-scale mining, the mine sites at Osiri are relatively small, privately owned by individuals rather than companies, and do not have the same scale or scope of industrial equipment to process metal and minerals. This means the turnover of product is slower, and more manpower is required; however this also creates the opportunity for employment for a huge amount of people in this very rural area, where there is not much job opportunity outside of agriculture and fishing.

While ASM has had a controversial reputation with health and safety, human rights, and environmental management issues, it has been estimated that 20% of global gold production is from ASM. This sector also provides livelihoods for 40 million people globally, 10 million of those being in Africa.

I had no specific expectations on arrival, however I didn’t expect for the community to be on top of the mineshafts. A whole town of houses and small shops made of metal sheet and wood planks, a few concrete buildings like a school and office, and in between the structures there would be holes reinforced with wood, less than a metre wide, with a bucket and rope being constantly lowered and lifted to retrieve the rock which were being mined below.

There are roughly 20-25 different mines at Osiri, and a whole community on top of it. There were also piles of tailings (excess mined material), sluicing slides and pools, panning stations, crushing stations and sales stations for the middle-men. Meanwhile, teenagers are playing a game of footie alongside all this, and others sit on their porches drinking soda, preparing dinner or showering their toddlers. This is life at a small scale mine.

Plein air painting and doing it quickly—the ‘alla prima’ sketch—is a skill which I have been trying to exercise since we began painting colour studies at the FAA. This way of working has its own challenges, not to mention painting in an intense working environment, in the heat, and with curious people. This all definitely puts pressure on one’s ability to stay focused on the task at hand. However, it did give me access to people who knew much more than me on the topic of ASM, and were not only willing but excited and proud to be able to tell me about it. While some sketches definitely came out better than others, all of them had the input of at least ten people, and each sketch reminds me of those conversations.

My setup included a homemade pochade box and tripod, mirror, view finder, and a wide range of brushes. Each sketch was complete after 1 to 2 hours, before my paint dried to my palette in the heat. Although the scenes I was painting were unlike anything exercised at the FAA, the basic understanding of drawing, value and colour became incredibly important as well as visual memory and an understanding of human form and movement, especially when put under pressure. It is situations like this which make me realise how much I’ve learnt from everyone I studied with over the past four years.

This excursion was a huge pleasure. I was welcomed into the homes of many kind families who have benefited from ASM: starting businesses, funding further education and owning property. To be able to use painting to travel, meet interesting people and educate myself on complex topics is hugely gratifying and enormously inspiring. My intention is to use these oil sketches as studies for larger, more elaborate works explaining the gold mining process and representing ASM workers, and to hopefully shed light onto responsible sourcing and how this sector can be supported.

These future compositions are only the beginning of a much larger project on supply chains, which will expand further in 2024.”

Phoebe Stewart Carter (b.1999) from Gloucestershire, England, grew up between the UK and Maryland, USA. Phoebe began drawing and painting at a young age but felt the need to understand the medium technically before wanting to use it expressively. In 2017 she became a student of artist Nick Beer in his studio in Salisbury, England. While in Salisbury she was introduced to academic drawing techniques that were taught through the 19th century. Being determined to further her education, she travelled to Italy in 2018 to begin intensive training at the Florence Academy of Art (FAA). The three years of training she received armed her with an invaluable set of representational skills and opened the doors to an expanse of artistic knowledge of which she continues to build upon. After having graduated from the drawing and painting course, Phoebe was awarded a position as an artist in residence and instructor at the FAA. Phoebe is currently living and working in Northumberland, taking commissions and working on personal projects. Stewart Carter exhibits internationally, and has been awarded prizes for her portraiture from The Royal Society of Portrait Painters and The Portrait Society of America.

To view more of Phoebe’s work, visit:

Website: www.phoebestewartcarter.com

Instagram: @phoebestewartcarter