BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE saying is true, ‘Art is Life’… it embodies everything around us and several students got a closer look at creative art pieces when they visited the Art Gallery of Dennis Richards recently.
Richards who is a Lecturer at the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College, introduced his art class last Friday, September 28 to some of his paintings and works, which were located at the Old Treasury Building.
The gallery was filled with various paintings belonging to Richards along with a few other artistes whose work he was also showcasing.
He told SKNVibes that he wanted to give the students a lesson on critiquing art work while simultaneously showcasing his work in order to help them to better understand Art and the inspiration behind it.
His paintings featured several items of his past childhood experience that have made their way into becoming priceless pieces of today.
He describes his pieces as Past, Present and Futuristic paintings.
You would see a painting of Irish Town Bay Road along with fishing boats and paintings of interesting folklore and profiles from our Carnival.
But when Richards did profiles as he explained to the students he would not draw a picture of a face but various aspects that can be identified with the person.
So you may see a painting of a long skinny black man, with long dreads in a bowling position, or sugar cane stalks painted as if they were dancing.
His subjects and themes vary and sometimes reflect his personal experiences.
In one of his paintings he explained to the students that he incorporated stuff belonging to his mother like an antique chair while another featured beaches and sand as his label is SKB Black Sand.
One of the paintings for his logo incorporated an image of bicycle wheels and he explained to the students that once when he was a child he was promised a bicycle but had never received it.
“It’s something that was there and maybe I needed closure; I also have another painting where I incorporated the bicycle,” he said.
Richards said that Art is the basis for everything.
“Art is the basis of survival; we look around and everything is Art. If you can’t make it you have to buy it … someone has to make it so why not us? Through Art you can teach almost any subject, but any subject can’t teach Art.
So it’s the basis for everything,” he said.
The Art Teacher said that since we have gone into Tourism, the Tourists wants to see what we have to offer apart from the sun, sea and sand as other countries offer those as well.
“The people of the country are more creative and if we develop that and empower the people with their ability to do Art, it will be very beneficial for us. If you look at Haiti, one of the things that stands out with them is their art and you can identify with it and we need to motivate our people in that direction.”
Stating that Art is the basis of life, Richards said is wide ranging - a vast area including Graphic Art, Painting, Sculpting, Building, Modeling, the way a person styles their hair, the way they accessorize and also their accessories are Art.
“So are we going to keep buying them when we can make them? Each individual has a talent and once you show them the basics they would find their own niche,” he said.
One of the students, 17-year-old Dwight Walters, who hopes to become a top Architect in the Federation, said he was moved by the paintings that have opened his mind to be creative and to explore as much as possible various aspects of Architecture.
Jacinthia Teshira, also 17, said that seeing the various paintings and designs has encouraged her to have more confidence in her work.
“It gives me a better appreciation of my own work because most of the time I do work and I don’t value it because it does not look like what people would put out there, but coming here and seeing the message behind them it encourages me to put more value in my work and make it more personal instead of what everyone else would like,” she said.
She said she chose to do Art as a subject because she knows she would not be happy without doing it.
“I chose to do Art because I know I wouldn’t be happy with anything else; it is something I grew up knowing and loving and it’s a part of me. I want to do all aspects of Art - Performing Art, Visual Art… I’m more into Architecture and Interior Designing. I love putting things together and colour blocking,” she said.
