GREAT vibe at Jacala yesterday. Sunday there can be so much fun, with great friends, and maybe a tad too much table hopping on my part. I savored both specials yesterday – started with a vegetable and feta terrine, then segued into a dazzling shrimp risotto….. Every bite was perfection!
Round the Island boat race yesterday to celebrate Anguilla Day. The still shots are mine, and I thank my neighbor Tommy Hodge for this incredible drone footage of the race as it heads past!
I found this wonderful quote of the artist in reallife magazine, a publication about Caribbean design and culture. It’s at the end of the article, and Stafford says this about his work “somewhat akin to surrealist philosophy…to be interpreted in the mind’s eye, rather than the actuality of physical involvement”. I thought it was a profound
sentiment as I installed these two new works in the gallery, “Fishing Village”, and “Roses, Hibiscus and Wine Bottle”. Both such beautiful and evocative gems.
DELIGHTED to hang this Romel Balan “Tree of Life” in the gallery. I’ve always shown the unpainted metal works from Haiti. I respect the brightly painted ones, and love this particular sculpture because the birds in the tree are lightly painted. A hybrid of sorts!
A strange schedule prevailed yesterday, did not bring my little lunch to the gallery, and landed up the west end in the early afternoon. LUCKILY, I landed up at Spice of India and had a truly delicious late lunch. Tried something new, called Kadai Chicken, which was one of the most truly
flavourful meals I’ve enjoyed in a while. I asked to make it spicy, and was delighted!
Ms. Workman knocks it out of the park again, with these 3 gyotaku-based paintings. All superb, but I am drawn incredibly
to “Mahi Madness”. Once again, the artist creates “rubbings” using fish from the sea, then builds on that original image with a variety of media. Exquisite.
Ms. Mason’s nautical adventures have led to some really fine paintings. I love this one, “Old Buoys in the Sunset”, 
and also adore the poetic prose written by the artist on the back of the painting!
I’ve been hearing great things about the breakfast buffet at Zemi Beach Hotel, so this morning, a friend and I, armed only with awesome appetites, headed over to Shoal Bay East to check it out. What a wonderful treat! This really is one of the loveliest buffets I’d seen in ages, and everything was well prepared and delicious. It’s the small touches too – fresh squeezed o.j., and very good coffee compliment the food. I LOVED this carved watermelon/ I mean, what can I say??? PS Particularly delicious and flaky croissants………
I ‘ve been chomping at the proverbial bit for these new works of Jo-Anne Mason – she tempted me with pics as she traveled with Chris to St. Kitts, Nevis and Sint Maarten. DELIGHTED to have them in the gallery now, and positively worth the wait. All quite superb, as she continues to see the inherent beauty in landscapes and now seascapes, that you and and I might glance at and forget. She’s quite new to the world of boating, but her paintings of Sandy Ground, and the buoy of Simpson Bay are absolutely exquisite.
I’m fielding lots of very welcome compliments lately about the strong state of the gallery, and for that, I have to thank my artists. Proof of that last week, Kim Workman’s very large gyotaku piece,”The Deep” looks amazing beside Victor Hempel’s “Welcoming the Morning Sun”. It’s quite different than her smaller works here at the gallery, as it is done on rag paper, then manipulated with these beautiful crinkles before being mounted on canvas and sealed. Francis Eck’s new work “Quand Passant les Voiles” (When the Sails Pass By) is an arresting painting in its’ own right. Thank you!
