Victory Lap

"For success, attitude is equally as important as ability." - Walter Scott

Dearest readers, there is much to talk about. These past two weeks have been a blur, and I have reaped the rewards of all of the hard work I have put in during this past year. Without further ado, let me begin:

- Secondary Schools Short Film Festival 2014

In my previous post, I begged all of you to head to the polls over at OvertimeTT.com to vote for a short film created by my friends and I; a short film called Shadows.

In case you haven't seen the short film as yet, you can view it here:

Turn your speakers up!



Shadows was created in 2014 over the July-August vacation as part of an entry by hillview College into the Secondary Schools Short Film Festival (SSSFF). The team comprised of many outgoing members of Upper 6 including Caleb Hector, Duane Swift, Marc Harroo, Naveen Ramoutar and I; along with members of (at the time) Form 2: Tevon Thatcher and Imzan Ogir.

It is a social piece tackling one aspect of psychological trauma in the evolution of a victim of bullying into a perpetrator of the act.

After your tireless voting efforts, I am pleased to announce that my team has brought the award home to my school! Thanks to the voters and my team, Hillview College has won the people's choice award for 2014!

This leaves me with high hopes for the future of filmmaking at the school, since this entire process has inspired many to find their creative side, and explore different realms of storytelling. 

- Film and Photography Club and Graduation

Last Thursday 9th October, 2014, I officially graduated from Hillview College. Later on that week, I would also find out that I had won a national scholarship in the academic sphere of Natural Sciences.

However, this is an art blog, so academics play second fiddle to expression here!


Last year, a decades-dead club was revived  under the tutelage of very enthusiastic staff members. As part of the executive of the now-revived Film and Photography Club at Hillview College, my hard work played an integral role in the operations of this thriving community.

Besides being part of the student leadership, I was basically their official graphic artist and public relations go-to guy.

As a thriving club, we hosted an exhibition of members work months after formation, sold fundraising calendars, created an identifiable badge, established a commanding online presence, and effectively became the premier media outlet of life at Hillview College.


So...

I was very thrilled that on graduation, I was given the honour to accept an award as a representative of the Film and Photography Club. This was no ordinary award...

The Film and Photography Club, just one year old, well-deservedly won the award for "Organization Making the Most Significant Contribution to College Life!!!" 

The Memorial Bowl for "Club of the Year" 

- The Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago

I have only been a member of the ASTT for just about a year. However, as longtime readers know, I've been going down there long before I became a member.

The largest art exhibition of the year at the ASTT is the November Members' Group Exhibition, which runs the longest of all shows at the gallery.

I have submitted my two pieces to the exhibition, and eagerly await the opening reception on November 7th, 2014 and 7p.m.

However, the story does not end there...

There was an in-house competition to select the best design for the invitation to this premier exhibition. After days of suspense, I was contacted.

They picked me to design the invitation and catalogue cover, along with other necessary graphics, for the November Exhibition of 2014.

On that note, I would like to cordially invite you to come down to the Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago to view the works of all the members, and purchase those that appeal to you. It would certainly make both you and the artist happy!

Details are included in the image below:

The exhibition runs from November 7th to 22nd, 2014.

The opening reception takes place on Friday 7th, November, 2014 from 7p.m. to 9p.m.

Be there.

Looking forward to the season

The Christmas season will be in full swing within a couple months, followed closely by Carnival.
The creative industry in Trinidad and Tobago will be soon picking up speed in preparation for the grand showcase next February. With school obligations, it will be difficult to have coverage of all the events, but it's going to be an exciting time!

First up is the Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago's Annual November Exhibition at the 101 Art Gallery.
This year will be special since the November exhibition also commemorates the Art Society's 70th Anniversary. I can't wait to see what they have in store, since a special commemorative Anniversary Wall will be on display at the show.

The Art Society's 70th Anniversary Exhibition will be held from Friday 15th November to Saturday 30th November. See you there!

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.