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 The building seemed like an ordinary, outdated Port-of-Spain commercial building constructed in the bygone era of boxy shapes and semi-curved walls.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.

The Art of Design

Artistic expression can take many forms.

There's drawing, there's painting, 3-dimensional imaginative pieces, 3-dimensional craft and textile work.

The influence of fashion in today's world has far extended beyond the boundaries of the female.

Men are becoming more conscious of their appearance and we artists can EXPLOIT these...wonderful opportunities for some extra creativity (and revenue).

Fashion is a cutthroat facet of life.

It's either you have the best, or you have nothing at all.

The common thought among er...wealthy fashion addicts is that "I'm only wearing originals! No imitations or franchise clothes."

What's more original than a piece of clothing created by an artist?

No company branding, no chance of a replica and the highest level of DESIGNER ORIGINAL clothing available...

As the title states, The true process is all in the design.

As can be seen in TODAY'S society, brand name doesn't mean much anymore.

The quality assured by the brand before has been almost entirely removed by get rich quick schemes which skimp on quality but care about quantity.

Some of the most beautiful designs are best kept in small quantities so that a level of appreciation can be felt when these are seen.

They're almost magically rare...

And so begins my tale of the t-shirt.

This abstract looking t-shirt was the final product of an accidental design (this seems to be an everyday occurrence for me these days :/ ).

I decided that we live in a bright, steaming hot tropical island, and this t-shirt should reflect some of that.

In contrast to international designs which use straight edges and sharp corners (which I like by the way), CURVED edges were used.

I have a progress picture of the garment with about half of the work already completed:

I hope to have it 100% completed soon and have some model shots of it!!

This is my re-introduction to textile design.

It's quite fun and this will be my new favourite t-shirt store, my room.