James Nyika

Ballooners, Original Painting

2025

Artist Comments
The watercolor painting captures hot-air balloons preparing for an early morning game in the savannahs of East Africa. Bright flames from the burners contrast with the emerging morning light. The scene highlights the quiet anticipation before the balloons take flight.

About the Artist
Artist James Nyika paints the glowing atmosphere of cities across the world. As a child growing up in Kenya, he found art materials at the student bookshop and also borrowed just about every art history volume from the British Council library in Nairobi. "I checked out the same books over and over just to stare at the art, to try and understand how it was created," says James. With family encouragement to study engineering, James moved to the U.S. and immersed himself in science studies at Boston University. Several years after embarking on a tech career, he set a goal to create at least one painting a week, never throwing away any works and learning as much as possible in his off hours. Today, James still balances his full-time career designing large software systems with his prolific output as a painter. "Painting is a great antidote to the regularity of a computing profession and I really value it for the uncertainty that it brings - something frowned upon when writing code."

Words that describe this painting: balloon, Africa, Kenya, hot-air balloon, bright, pop, sports, travel, watercolor painting, blue

Ballooners
James Nyika
Watercolor painting on paper
Ready to frame
One-of-a-kind
Signed on front
2025
22 in. h x 30 in. w
0 lbs. 2 oz.