Matthew Chin

Re­porter

matthew.chin@guardian.co.tt

The Art So­ci­ety of T&T is show­cas­ing 71 pieces of art­work from the stu­dio col­lec­tions of 53 of its mem­bers. Medi­ums used by the artists ranged from acrylic, oil and wa­ter­colour to mixed me­dia and sculp­ture.

One mem­ber of the Art So­ci­ety, Mark Joseph, who is no stranger to ex­hibit­ing at the gallery, said he be­gan do­ing art when he was a stu­dent at Queen’s Roy­al Col­lege. There, he honed his skills in recre­at­ing pouis, birds, and lo­cal land­scapes through paint­ing. Soon af­ter, he delved in­to pho­tog­ra­phy and be­gan to use his pho­tos as ref­er­ences for his sub­se­quent art pieces.

For the ex­hib­it, his work Zoo Poui was put on dis­play which the artist had cre­at­ed us­ing acrylics back in 2022. He said he took ap­prox­i­mate­ly two weeks to fin­ish the 24’’ (H) x 18’’ (W) paint­ing, re­turn­ing to his can­vas on and off while bal­anc­ing the de­mands of his job as a soft­ware de­vel­op­er.

“This piece took about two weeks to fin­ish, about an hour and a half a day,” Joseph said.

The 31 year old en­joys be­ing part of the Art So­ci­ety as it is a place where many artists, he said, can get to know each oth­er and have their art ex­posed to wider au­di­ences.

“It’s a pret­ty nice space, you get to meet a lot of the lo­cal artists, you get a lot of ex­po­sure, too. So, dif­fer­ent gallery own­ers would prob­a­bly be here as well. When you come on an open­ing night, you meet a lot of peo­ple,” Joseph said. Pres­i­dent of the Art So­ci­ety, Kei­ba Ja­cob Mot­t­ley, said that the turnout of sub­mis­sions for the show was more than they an­tic­i­pat­ed to the point some artists were turned away.

“It was heart-warm­ing to get so many sub­mis­sions, how­ev­er, we did have to turn away some artists,” Mot­t­ley said.

She not­ed the qual­i­ty of sub­mis­sions over the past two years to the gallery has been im­prov­ing, with some artists who would have ex­hib­it­ed years ago now re­turn­ing to the venue.

“We’re now see­ing re­turn­ing artists, some from ten years ago com­ing back to the Art So­ci­ety. More sales of art­work are hap­pen­ing, too. I am re­al­ly proud of our artists,” Mot­t­ley said.

An­oth­er re­al­ist painter ex­hibit­ing their work is self-taught artist Su­san Cor­reia. Un­like Joseph, she ad­mit­ted that she had nev­er touched acrylics.

Al­though many artists typ­i­cal­ly use ei­ther acrylics or oils for their mas­ter­pieces, the self-taught artist prefers wa­ter-based paint which she de­scribed as an “emul­sion”. She loves recre­at­ing T&T’s build­ings and land­scapes on her can­vas us­ing pho­tographs for ref­er­ence.

“I dri­ve around and cap­ture the light. I read some years ago in an art book that said, ‘Art is all about light and shad­ow’; it gives a three-di­men­sion­al look to your work,” Cor­reia said.

Three of her pieces were se­lect­ed for the show: Mem­o­ries of Coun­try Club (2020), Gold­en Days (2016), and The Ba­nana Patch (2019).  

“This (emul­sion) doesn’t fade; it’s amaz­ing and very for­giv­ing, you can wipe out any er­ror. I have no de­sire to try any­thing else,” Cor­reia said.

While talk­ing with Cor­reia, she con­sid­ered the coun­try’s tal­ent as amaz­ing and one of a kind.

“I think Trinida­di­ans are amaz­ing with their gifts, I mean ... when you look around and see the work, it can make you go, ‘Wow!’ but you have to be care­ful be­cause it can some­times make you feel like you’re not good enough,” Cor­reia said. She lament­ed that artists, even those with years of ex­pe­ri­ence and crit­i­cal­ly ac­claimed, of­ten sab­o­tage their self-con­fi­dence when they com­pare their artistry to oth­er artists.

“I know a very well-known artist, and she does ex­treme­ly well, she said some­thing to me once that made me stop and think, she said, ‘When I look at your work I feel to take mine and throw it in the dust bin.’ But when I would look at her work, even though it’s dif­fer­ent from mine, it’s fab­u­lous.”

“All artists go through this.”

Asked if she has ever had a so­lo ex­hi­bi­tion be­fore, she said yes, hav­ing shown at the Art So­ci­ety and al­so in the com­fort of her home which she said had been suc­cess­ful. This year, how­ev­er, she will not be host­ing a so­lo ex­hi­bi­tion. Cor­reia comes from Pe­tit Val­ley and works as an art teacher. She teach­es peo­ple at their homes, sup­plies their can­vas, and al­lows her stu­dents to choose their own sub­jects.

Fol­low­ing Gems of Trinidad and To­ba­go which be­gan on Feb­ru­ary 21 and runs un­til March 9, an­oth­er con­sign­ment show will al­low the coun­try’s gems to show off their tal­ent to­wards the end of March in­to April.

Ad­mis­sion to view the gallery is free and is open to the pub­lic from Tues­days to Sat­ur­days, 12 pm to 6 pm.