Stanley Barnes’ talent as a painter was recognised quickly at the Jamaica School of Art, but, as painting tutor Kofi Kayiga noted in his term report, his progress was marred by a tendency to be mischevious and an arrogance that made him unwilling to conform or comply with regular attendence at classes. His dismissive approach to formal tuition seemed not to harm his artistic development. Even before Stanley Barnes had graduated his work was shown in a travelling exhibition of Jamaican art to the United States and Canada, giving credence to his precocious skills.
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Christopher Irons is a recent outstanding graduate of the EMSVA. He distinguished himself while still at college by being chosen most outstanding student of the second year and by receiving scholarships from the Bolivar and Student Council, Multi Care Foundation and the Ronald Moodie Scholarship. After graduating in 1998 he was selected to continue post-graduate studies in painting at the EMSVA. Christopher has also been the lead singer in the musical band Assesimba.
Those who were at Art School with Cheryl Daley Champagnie will remember her obsession with texture. It was a theme that dominated her graduation exhibition and led her to paper-making and print-making, her later passions. To many her preoccupations seemed disparate and self indulgent but those who followed her interests closely recognised the process; the unfolding of an oeuvre that was complex, multi layered and all encompassing.
“The dismantling of apartheid in South Africa was a breath of fresh air after so many bitter years of struggle by its people to rid themselvess of a brutal and bloody system that denied them basic fundemental rights of justice, equality and dignity.” As an artist and a humanist Rafiki Kariuki says he is proud to have played his part in this struggle by producing works that provoked thoughts and statements against the monstrous system of apartheid.
Bryan McFarlane was born in Moore Town, Portland, a place renowned for its heritage and the Maroons from whom he claims descent. As a result, history and identity are important themes in his work. His understanding of his own ancestry is paralleled with an interest in the diversity of the world's cultures and fuelled by his extensive travels that since his graduation have taken him to West Asia, Africa, South America, Europe and the Caribbean. His travels have inspired his paintings and provided visual metaphors for his formal pictoral references and content.
Whitney Miller was among the earliest batch of students who attended the Jamaica School of Art and Crafts during the 1950s, and he graduated in 1963 as one of the first students to receive a diploma. Initially, he wanted to be a sculptor and was taught and encouraged by the late Edna Manley, but eventually he developed into a painter of figure compositions that the critic Andrew Hope has described as having ‘classical harmony and serenity’ (Andrew Hope, The Sunday Gleaner 1 October 1989).
One of the highlights of this year's Kingston on the Edge festival was an all too brief exhibition of drawings by the late artist Karl Parboosingh shown at the Bolivar in Kingston. Mounted by curator Claudia Hucke and very competently documented in its accompanying catalogue, the show presents a selection of Parboosingh's drawings taken from a sketchbook that he carried while he traveled through Europe and New York during the fifties. Additionally, there are drawings representing later works such as the preparatory sketches for his Wilton Gardens murals painted in Tivoli Kingston once he returned to Jamaica. Appropriately titled Jazz and Tings, the exhibition provides a fascinating glimpse into Parboosingh's bohemian life amongst avant garde artists that included modernists Fernand Leger and Raoul Dufy, and musicians such as Miles Davis and Charlie Parker; all major influences on Parboosingh. Created very early in his career, these drawings show little of the bold style that would define his later work. Instead, these are simple sketches that reflect Parboosingh's earliest development as an artist as well as his exploration of techniques and styles. Watercolours, line drawings and dense cross hatching reflect his search for a distinctive style. They also reveal the insecurities and weaknesses that he would learn to mask in later paintings.
Born in Kingston, Osmond Watson was a graduate of one of the first teaching programmes created by Edna Manley at the Jamaica School of Art and Crafts. In 1961, disappointed at the failure of plans for a West Indian Federation, he decided to travel to England with the intention of furthering his studies.
There is something heroic about Barrington Watson's commitment to the painting of Jamaica and it's people. He paints for posterity. In the vein of French salon painters such as Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) or Alexandre Cabanel (1823 - 1889), he documents the culture's history; it's myths and fantasies.
Phillip Thomas (b.1980) is a graduate of the Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts where he gained both a certificate and diploma in Painting with honours (2003). He currently lives and studies in New York but continues to exhibit in Jamaica. In 2008 he won the Aaron Matalon Award for his outstanding contribution to that year's Jamaica National Biennial.
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