Landscape of artists

Landscape paintings do not have to be a picture-perfect representation of mountains and seasides. They can be a scene from everyday life, an idea about the landscape of society or culture, or one aspect of a typical landscape.

Some of these out-of-the-box images can be seen at The Frame Shop’s A Space Inna Space in Woodbrook, at Richard "Ashraph" Ramsaran’s latest art exhibition, Landscape.

The exhibition began yesterday and the 38 pieces feature works by local and foreign artists, both established and new, including Andrea C Hoffer, Embah, Paul Kain, Roberta Stoddart, James Isaiah Boodhoo, Jackie Hinkson, Martin Solymar, Che Lovelace, Dean Arlen, Boscoe Holder, Parker Nicholas and Peter Doig. Using acrylic and oil paints, egg tempera, watercolour and mixed media, the artists’ unexpected use of form and colour, human figures, and inclusion of details without defined lines can evoke nostalgia, curiosity, confusion, wonder, and even dislike. But they all evoke some kind of emotion, as art should.

“Whatever I show I also have in my collection. I’m not going to have paintings in my space that I don’t feel comfortable recommending to a client,” said Ashraph as he showed this reporter around the small gallery.

He said this was the fourth group show this year. The theme of the first was based on the traditional Carnival character of the bat; the second was Fancy Sailor; and the third was The Mighty Sparrow. With the fourth, he moved away from the Carnival themes and asked artists to be different in interpreting the landscape theme so even the natural scenery was not presented in a traditional manner.

Ashraph said he appreciates Hinkson’s work, as watercolour is one of the hardest media with which to work. For him, the painting Cricket on the Beach brought back memories of a simpler time.

Hoffer, a German artist living in Tobago, painted scenes from both islands, including a tennis court surrounded by greenery called Tobago Recreation. The Moral Code of the Land collection by the late Embah was also on display, highlighting TT’s spiritual and cultural connections.

“He is quite comical, and he’s self-taught. His stories are out there. But I love his work,” said Ashraph.

Kain depicted busy city life and Carnival scenes such as Two Hens Crossing Belmont Circular Road, which showed a man with a gun wearing a white dress in the middle of the road with a chicken at his feet.

Stoddart’s pieces were unexpected, with the pieces Creeper, Creature, and Cold Blooded showing a caiman in the water, which Ashraph believes was inspired by the caiman found earlier this years in Chaguaramas.

Nicholas’ Birdman and Birdman...Looking For a Bird showed the men typically seen in maxi taxis or around the Queen’s Park Savannah either carrying a birdcage or with birds perched on their person.

Landscapes, Ashraph said, “don’t need to be coconut trees and all that. That’s the thing with all of these pieces: they are not like a photo. You have the concept and the placement of the lines that tells you what you’re looking at. They are just so beautiful. It is what it is. I love them.”