About

Geraldine Robarts is a celebrated artist based in Nairobi, Kenya. With over eight decades of painting, Geraldine’s vibrant and dynamic works capture the essence of African landscapes, cultures, and everyday life. Her diverse style, ranging from impressionistic depictions of nature to abstract explorations of African spirituality, has earned her international recognition. A passionate teacher and mentor, Geraldine has influenced generations of artists, and her art continues to inspire with its bold use of color, texture, and mixed media techniques. Explore her unique collection and journey through her artistic vision.

She works with oil, acrylic and watercolours and experiments in different ways, always pushing the boundaries of what paint, colour, and new materials can achieve. She has developed techniques unique to herself which give paintings considerable depth and soul which she has shared with her students.

For many years, Geraldine was a university lecturer in fine art, first at Makerere University, Kampala and then at Kenyatta University, Nairobi. In the early 1960’s she brought the craft of batik making from Indonesia to Uganda and then to Kenya because the price of paints, brushes, and canvas was then beyond the pocket of local artists.

In 1988/89 she was a Visiting Professor in Art Education at McGill University, Montreal, bringing the Gusii and Inuit tribes together through their art. She collaborated on a book “Stories in Stone” and curated an exhibition of sculptures which travelled through Canada and the USA, establishing the international market for Kisii soapstone.

Geraldine is a Baha’i and has been a voluntary teacher with grassroots women’s groups in Kenya since 1964. Since 1990 she has helped women’s groups in Kitui, Kenya. She created workshops for making colourful ornamental sisal weaving and wall-hangings. These are still produced and have a market in Nairobi and for export. By offering people the opportunity to have income generating projects she has improved the lives of many people who otherwise were struggling to survive.

She has done a lot of work on health improvement by building productive fruit farms and provision of dams across sandy rivers, together with pumped water systems which overcame the pressing need of the village women to spend their lives collecting water and firewood and has transformed the ability of communities to grow sustainably in the long term. The storage of water behind dams has meant the removal of animals and people from sandy riverbeds so that the incidence of malaria and typhoid dropped and the better health from lots of fresh fruit and vegetables meant mothers and children have so much better a chance of doing well.