Year in Review: 2011

Here we are once again, facing the end of another year while eagerly awaiting the genesis of another. As time races by, one must always take some time out to reflect on the events of the year past to examine one's achievements as well as one's shortcomings.



This year has exposed me to a diverse range of experiences. The year two thousand and eleven has taken me from tragedy to triumph and back.


With 2011 almost behind us, I will take this opportunity to recap my experiences this year in the visual arts.

In no particular order:

• Republic Bank - Young Artists' Canvas to the World Project

In December of the previous year, 2010, I entered into Republic Bank's Young Artists' Canvas to the World Project.  Forced to paint during my end of term examinations of my first term in Form 4, this competition put my body and mind under a very large quantity of stress.

Thankfully, after a week or two of hard artistic labour between exams, as well as a very long month of tense waiting, I was invited to the awards ceremony at Republic Bank's head office.

There, I was announced as one of the seven winners of this competition. One of the champions.

My winning piece: The Magic of the Monarch

My winnings included $5,000 in cash for myself, $5,000 in art supplies for my school and the exhibition of my piece of art at the Piarco International Airport and at the Trincity branch of Republic Bank.

You can read the entire trilogy of this story starting here.

• HOUSE M.D. Portrait

Earlier this year, at the beginning of my Easter vacation, I started a new portrait. The subject of this portrait happened to be a favourite television character of mine, Hugh Laurie in the role of Dr. Gregory House.

However, at the private viewing of Canvas Caribbean's exhibit, With an Open Mind, I was advised by my visual arts teacher to stop doing portraits of foreign celebrities. Hence I decided that since this was the last portrait of these celebrities and characters originating outside of our shores, I would be letting this one go out with a bang.

This decision as well as an improvement in my skills led to the birth of my (now famous?) graphite portrait of Dr. Gregory House.

This is currently my flagship portrait, but who knows how long it's reign as my best portrait will be?
2012 seems like a very long year filled with opportunities for me.


This portrait has been very influential in many of my successes this year.

You can read more about this portrait here

This brings me to my next achievement...

• Guide to Online Schools' Student Blogging Awards

To all of those who can remember this button, I am deeply grateful for your support, your time and your energies towards promoting my blog. Your tireless voting put me into the winning spot once again.

With your appreciation of my post on the House M.D. portrait, your tireless voting placed me into the top 10 of the competition. Then, a panel of judges selected the five winning posts based on their quality.

I was one of those five.

You can read more here

• Caribbean Beat Magazine

  Republic Bank was also responsible for another accomplishment of mine, being semi-featured in the Caribbean Beat magazine. This magazine is available free of charge to all passengers of Caribbean Airlines and Air Jamaica on their respective flights.

In the article in the May/June issue of this year, Republic Bank spoke about the success of the competition and its impact on the lives of its participants and its winners.


I was elated to see that out of the seven paintings, they chose mine to display on their article.

You have the opportunity to check out this issue of Caribbean Beat magazine by clicking here

• Heritage - The Knowsley Building

With this being a year of many firsts, it was only fitting that I try to do something groundbreaking. Something that would make people talk for days, weeks, months, even years about a piece of art created by someone so new to the industry.

I wanted to make a statement that professionals need not be these larger than life, detatched individuals.

Greatness can be achieved without losing oneself to social constructs.
Individuality is key in becoming legendary.

Just look at classical Trinidad architecture.


Also, with this being my first major architectural focused landscape, I intended to set a high standard for my work. After five weeks of painstaking detail, shadowing and artistic substitution, 'Heritage' was born.

Heritage - 2011, Graphite pencils on paper: 22" x 17"

As it turned out, this piece along with my portrait of Dr. House became my premier pieces at my school's inaugural Visual Arts exhibition.

• Secrets: The Inaugural Exhibition

As a student of Hillview College, I have the ability to represent my school by the way I conduct myself and the things that I do. I can choose whether to be a positive change to society or to succumb to the pressures of negativity and conformity to the social environment we exist in.

When given the opportunity to display my artwork for the public eye, I must admit that I was a bit concerned underneath all of my excitement and intrigue. However, after the magnificent experience I gained from this occasion, I have faith that my generation can rise from the ashes of Trinidadian society and construct a new reality for the future of the minds of this nation.

Secrets has been a very enlightening experience for myself as I experienced first-hand what it feels like to make a positive impact on others, no matter how miniscule that impact is.

I felt appreciated by people who hardly knew me, I became a celebrity for a week :) , I received some harsh critiques as well as some heartwarming compliments for my efforts. I experienced some extreme contrasts but I deeply appreciated every moment that was bestowed upon me during our exhibition.

You can catch a glimpse of some of the exhibition pieces here

• The Gourmet Genie

As my first clients in the sphere of Graphic Design, I am deeply grateful to the owners of the Gourmet Genie for taking a leap of faith in hiring me to create a television commercial promoting their business in Southern Trinidad.

The Gourmet Genie is a lovely little store which specializes in gourmet food items, teas, coffees, seasonings etc. They also feature 'as seen on TV' products from a variety of famous Food Network personalities.

You can find the Gourmet Genie at Ground Floor, SSL Building, 40 Sutton St, San Fernando


Feel free to visit their Facebook page

And so ends another year in our lives. Was it a worthwhile one?
The year ahead is filled with opportunities to embrace as well as those to decline.


My advice to you is to set your standards high and keep your goals in sight in the coming year.
True success and happiness is born out of hard work and committment.



Have a safe, successful and rewarding 2012.

Secrets: The Exhibition

The first term of Form 5 is finally over.
Now I have the time to update the blog.

There have been quite a few hurdles to overcome this term and there have been a great deal of troughs and crests in our preparation for our inaugural art exhibition, Secrets.

The prospect of hosting an art exhibition at our school was very overwhelming when the idea was first conceived in May, 2011. At that point in time, we were 'enjoying' the all round pressures of the last term of Form 4 and as art students, when Mrs. Tappin - Davis announced that we had the opportunity to host an exhibition, we were very excited at the prospect of showcasing our work to the public.


Needless to say, the journey was a long and hectic one, but it was very much worth it in the end.

In our brave journey into the unknown, our art teacher and we upper school artists single handedly established Hillview College as an institution with a diverse selection of opportunities for academic improvement.


We placed Hillview College on the map for the study of the Visual Arts.



The opening night was abuzz with excitement as specially invited guests enthusiastically browsed through the diverse offering of the artworks created by students of Form 5 and 6.

Our exhibition boasted a total of thirty pieces from seven different artists.
Our display was held in the college's main hall/auditorium.

 Each of our thirty easels were adorned with artworks from our Form 6 artists such as Stephen Prince and Nikolai Maximay as well as our Form 5 artists including Duane Swift, Geovanni Ram, Marc Harroo, Matthew Babwah and myself.

Here are some samples of the artworks which were exhibited:

I shall start the display with my own pieces.
These very pieces gained me a perfect score in this term's Visual Arts assessment.
You may see some of my older pieces as well among the new creations.

All of my pieces:
Form 5M 
Johnathan Smith

Johnathan Smith: Copy of The Bongo Wake - 2010, Pen and Ink : 14" x 17"

Johnathan Smith: House M.D. (portrait 2) - 2011, Graphite on paper : 17" x 22"

Johnathan Smith: The Spiral - 2011, Mixed Media : 18 x 24

Johnathan Smith: Figure Drawing study - 2011 , Graphite on paper : 17 x 22

Johnathan Smith: Heritage - 2011, Graphite on paper : 17 x 22

Johnathan Smith: Pot of Gold - 2011, Mixed Media : 11 x 15

The other artworks were contributed by our Form 6 students, Stephen Prince and Nikolai Maimay, as well as the other students in my Form 5 class. I have included two samples each of my favourite pieces from their collections as well:

Form 6

Nikolai Maximay

Form 6

Stephen Prince

Form 5E

Matthew Babwah

Form 5M

Marc Harroo

Form 5W

Geovani Ram

Form 5M

Duane Swift

Secrets has raised much awareness about the artistic talents which can be found within the walls of the nation's secondary schools, especially those within Hillview College.

Honestly, who will take over as the nation's next generation of artists?

It starts with us, the youth.
Which brings me to another point...


I was elated beyond words by the dramatic turnout of Hillview's student population, on a daily basis, to the auditorium to experience our exhibition.

As Mrs. Tappin - Davis once said, the students came into this exhibition as an oasis from all of the stresses inside of the classroom. Inside of the auditorium, all wild behaviour and horseplay ceased. For the first time in my five years at Hillview, I saw a different side to the students.

They were serene.



I was also elated by the visit of the art students of two other secondary schools.

The Forms 3 - 6 art students of El Dorado East Secondary School and Gasparillo Secondary School both visited our exhibition that week. It was a very enlightening experience for me due to my own personal ignorance of art's appreciation in this country.

After seeing the neglect and pressures faced by the nation's art community, it was extremely refreshing, relieving and invigorating to see so many youths with a passion for the arts. Every single one of them displayed an indiscriminate love and passion for furthering themselves in the artistic realm. Their excitement fueled my love for the arts further simply by knowing "there are more of us out there in society".

It was an honour being part of this inaugural exhibition.

OUR exhibition.

Classified Data

The following information is highly classified:

I can be charged for showing these to you.
But that is my decision.

My fate.

In November of this current year, 2011, there will be an event.

In November of this year, there will be a revelation.

In November of this year, there will be SECRETS.


The Visual Arts students of Form 4-5 Hillview College will be holding an exhibition entitled Secrets at the main building of our campus.

The exhibition will be held from the 15th to the 18th November 2011.



Hillview College is located at the corner of El Dorado and College Roads, Tunapuna, Trinidad.

In case you are not familiar with the area, when heading either Eastbound or Westbound on the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway, you will encounter the Macoya intersection (the one where you can see the pretty large Trini flag at FireOne's headquarters).

Turn off of the highway into Macoya Road and simply travel along that Northbound Road all the way to the top (you have to cross the bus route and the Eastern Main Road as well).

While driving up to the top, Hillview College's campus is pretty hard to miss.

The first thing you'll see is a maroon gate and if you look closely, you shall see the college insignia and the words "Hillview College" on the gate in gold.

Please view our website



The artists will be there, but try not to interrogate us please :)

Viewing will be possible between  8:10a.m. and 2:30p.m.

HOUSE

I am a passionate photorealist. I cannot fully appreciate pieces that lack detail unless they vividly depict a deeper, alternate meaning than what is presented at face value. I strive with all of my being to include as much detail as possible into all of my pieces. The full effect of photorealism is achieved through the application of high contrast, painstaking shadowing and the inclusion of as many details as possible.

In portrait work, it is even more important to pay attention to these principles in order to create an impressive replica of the subject in portrait.

However, one must also pay rapt attention to the details of the layout of the face and the person's features. Accuracy in this department will aid in ensuring that the portrait looks just like the person.

A fellow blogger, Portia Subran (a.k.a. DeadEyes), has experience in developing portraits.

You can find her at The Art of Wisdom and War

Anyway, its my turn to show 'off' my portraits too.

It's been a while since I've done a proper portrait. 

Not counting the one I've just completed, the last portrait I created was completed on the first of September last year.

Wow....it's been a while.

Personally, I think that I have definitely improved upon my techniques and my rendering capabilities but I definitely have to continue working hard at improving my accuracy and proportion mapping.

The following picture shows the first portrait I EVER completed:

A 'failed' portrait of Dr. House  

 

House M.D. (Portrait 1), Graphite on paper: 14" X 17".
I definitely have improved since then.

If you take a close look at the portrait, I signed this piece over a year ago.

Since then, things have changed.

My ability to achieve shadowing has improved and I am proud of what I am able to achieve nowadays in my artistic studies and exploration of expression.

I was heavily advised to stop doing portraits of these famous people, so I thought I would let them go out with a bang.

One year later, I decided to take Dr. House for a spin again...

 

I definitely am proud of my improvements, but I leave the verdict up to my readers to tell me where I have to continue the physical practice and research necessary to become a better portrait artist.

Simply more than a year has helped me improve my techniques to a level beyond my own expectations.

On the 22nd April, 2011 This is how the NEW House M.D stands:

House M.D. (Portrait 2), Graphite on paper: 17" X 22".
Improvements galore.

So concludes another vacation in the life of a dedicated student and a very tired human being. The trials of academics and art help make me stronger at least, so there is some good that comes out of hard work.....

This is my last portrait of an internationally famed person who is not locally based.

In the future, I may post some pictures of my previous portraits which include the likes of Queen Latifah, The Joker, Taylor Swift, and last (but not least) Ellen DeGeneres.

Due to my return to the hectic life on Tuesday, my posts may start to dwindle in frequency, but I will try to update as best as I can.

Canvas Caribbean "With an Open Mind"

I was recently invited to attend the private viewing of Canvas Caribbean's latest exhibit, “With an Open Mind”. This prestigous exhibit was being held at the Gallery at Fine Art, Woodbrook. 

 

To be brutally honest, I was quite disappointed with the gallery itself. Every exhibition I have attended in the past boasted a beautiful, visually enticing gallery which pulls you inside to view the pieces with even more interest.

This was not the case with the Gallery at Fine Art. The building seemed like an ordinary, outdated Port-of-Spain commercial building constructed in the bygone era of boxy shapes and semi-curved walls.

However, despite my dissatisfaction with the architectural design of the building, I must say that I was impressed by the quality of most of the pieces exhibited.

Upon entering through the glass entrance of the gallery, an immediate feeling of excitement, competition, chaos and sheer madness could be felt emanating from the already energized patrons.

Due to my late arrival, I unfortunately missed out on an inspiring speech by the passionate Pat Bishop. However, her strong presence was still felt even without hearing her words personally.

This exhibition boasted a total of 82 pieces from 13 different artists.

I am proud to say that one of these artists is my very own art teacher,

Mrs. Michelle Tappin-Davis.

The walls of this 'institution' were also enlivened with works by talented artists such as Reita Antoine, Raymond Alexander, Camille Harding, Kathy Farabi, Carol Lewis, Vibert Medford, Darron Small, Shalini Singh, Antonio Weekes, Adele Bynoe, Anderson Dyett and Leona Fabien.

I didn't like Cheryl Davis' work at this exhibition. She depicted the bare upper female body in minutely different positions for each of her four paintings. The only difference to my eyes among these 'paintings' was the colour used on each. The 'paintings' were simply line drawings of the breast region lying on a separately coloured background. Highly repetitive and to my diagnosis, uncreative.

That's me carefully examining someone's work.

As compared to the Art Society's November Exhibition last year, the prices seemed more reasonable at this exhibit and more friendly to the buyer. 

Also, I saw a repeat display of a few paintings offered at the Art Society's exhibition last year.

I am very confident that any buyer attending this show will find himself impaled on the sharp horns of a dilemma due to the vast quantity of high quality artworks being presented.

Some of the intriguing pieces by Darron Small.

The print entitled 'Father and Son' done by none other than Michelle Tappin.

Raymond Alexander's simple 'Honey Bees and Portugals'.

There was a diverse showing of talent at this exhibition. The common ground of painting was present, but there were also displays of three-dimensional work and many different techniques used to create two-dimensional art.

My eyes caught sight of scarves done in batik, decorated bangles created by methods I cannot fathom, a solitary desk called 'Table of Life' and the vast quantity of appealing 2-D media.

My favourite artist of the night was Darron Small. His realistic pieces echoed volumes of historical tragedy through the beautiful manipulation of light and shadows to achieve a sense of danger, drama and suspense.

Here are some of the other impacting pieces of the exhibit:

More pieces by Michelle Tappin.

My father and myself enjoying the show.

Vibert Medford's creative photography.

The remarkable style of Reita Antoine.

The Gallery at Fine Art is located at the corner of Rosalino and Warren Streets, Woodbrook.

The Canvas Caribbean 'With an Open Mind' exhibition is well worth a little time out of your hectic lifestyle and is a beautiful way to relax and relieve yourself from the burdens of modern life.

I think you should pay a visit to this event.

I recommend this exhibition to anyone who appreciates art.

The Testing Period

As the school term has basically come to a close, assessments for all subjects were in order.

There were exams, there were assignments and there were...presentations.

For our Visual Arts assessment this term, we were given the opportunity to present four of our pieces for critique and subsequent marking.

The first piece of the puzzle was the graphic design effort towards creating album art for a musician's debut album release.

As such, it is supposed to clearly reflect on the type of person/group presenting the music; while also showing the distinct genre being offered.

The next critical piece was a self portrait to be done in the student specific media assigned.

I was able to select the option of completing my portrait in ink.

I have developed a fondness for the high contrast possible with penned pieces after completing the Alfred Codallo copy last term.

This is my completed self portrait.

I personally love the maze effect...

Being a 'dedicated' student, I clearly followed my teacher's instructions on the specific time period in which to pursue the construction of the T- shirt designs and the application of it to the textile.

As such, I missed out on the opportunity to paint various Hillview landscapes from observation.

While the other students could have submitted this landscape study as their fourth piece, I was pressed to find one out of my portfolio that was of the same standard as my other pieces while it could be allowed for presententation (for example, not one of my casual portraits or any work from last term).

As such, I decided that a suitable still-life would be the most efficient method of gaining a suitable fourth piece in the space of two days.

I assembled the composition myself using art materials from the studio and I worked tirelessly at completing my work.

At the end of a smooth presentation on Monday, I was pleased to learn that my hard work earned me an acceptable 93 in Visual Arts.

I suppose I will have to work harder next term to get even closer to my goal of a perfect score.