Hilton’s Extended Vacation

EXTENDED Vacation is the name given to the art exhibition opened last Thursday at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre.

The exhibition is being done in collaboration with Horizons Art Gallery.

Lisa Leid, manager of the gallery told Newsday, throughout 2018 they held monthly exhibitions at Hilton, called Art at the Hilton - A celebration of local culture and art.

She said: “We decided to do it again this year but brought it down to quarterly instalments because the gallery was a little stretched to the max, fulfilling monthly obligations here at the Hilton as well as our regular exhibition schedule. But we really enjoy coming and having the large forum of the Hilton lobby to have exhibited, all this local artwork.

“It is always100 per cent local artists and we have a wealth of talent here in Trinidad.”

The present exhibition features paintings done in oils, acrylics and watercolours by ten artists, representing a mixture of youth and experience.

“Ten different artists with sceneries of Trinidad and people enjoying themselves in different settings around the country,” Leid said.

The exhibition also showcases photographs by Patrice Sadaphal from Pink Boat Studios and Christine Norton, daughter of photographer Noel Norton.

Mt Irvine Bay (Shinhuey Ho), Maracas Beach (Samantha Rochard), Going Fishing (Safiya Hosein), Caroni (Joanna Aldred), Toucan (Anthony Lakhan), Evening Gosspi (Ann Stapleton), Tobago Jig (Gail Pantin), Flying at Sunset (Karen Hale Jackson), Orchid (Zaidee Walker), Coconut Tree (Sadaphal) and Football at My Feet (Norton), are among the exhibited paintings.

Apart from the lobby area, the exhibition extends to the dining area where most of the paintings there are the works of Paul Banning.

Jaap van Dam, director of operations, Hilton, said: “It is a wonderful event that promotes the local art and talent TT has to offer. The high quality of art is really stunning. I am amazed at the quality of work and how diverse the pieces are.”

Exhibitor Jackson said: “I am here with some really good artists, it’s good for me and I enjoy it, and I enjoy seeing people look at my work.”

Jackson, who started her art career in 2000 and went full-time into it in 2008, has nine acrylic pieces out of the close to 1,000 paintings she’s done to date.

She said: “You have no idea how rewarding this is. It’s therapy. It’s great for anything and right now I feel to explore new things. I’m trying new techniques and I cannot tell you how much I love it.”

For Walker who has made painting her career since 2011, said, “I feel so excited and on top of the world.”

She has 13 pieces on exhibit.

She said: “I had personal exhibitions in small but artistic cafés before, but I’m now working with photographer Patrice Sadaphal under the umbrella of Pink Boat Studios.”

This is the biggest exhibition in which her work has been shown.

Walker started with miniature paintings and they became an eye-catcher and soon she was commissioned to do larger ones. “It has really blossomed since then so I am doing a lot of commissions now and doing this exhibition is a step on another level and I really appreciate that I can be a part of Horizons exhibition. It’s been an amazing experience.”

With a laugh Rochard said she felt very strange about exhibiting her paintings at Art at the Hilton.

She said: “I usually sell a lot of my work online and I don’t usually go out to exhibit. I am not a very public person with my art. I don’t know why but I have always been shy about it. I can’t explain.”

She said though she’s showing ten landscapes at the exhibition but they are not the only things she paints. There are other paintings with other themes that have been shown at other places, sometimes mystical themes.

“My themes are usually centred around what is going on in my life at that time. And the three most memorable themes to date are nudes, that saw buyers from Egypt, Sweden and Spain, lotus flowers to represent coming out of the mud and the dragon flies series she is currently working on.

The exhibition runs until August 22.