Artist Sarah Beckett bids goodbye to Trinidad and Tobago

After more than half a century of creating, artist and poet Sarah Beckett is preparing to say goodbye to TT in the same way she honoured it – through her work.

Echoes of a Lifetime is both the end of a chapter and a turning of the page for Beckett, whose final exclusive exhibition before moving to the UK will be at Horizons Art Gallery on Mucurapo Road.

The farewell show brings together around 100 works created over the last 25 years or so – oils, drawings, acrylics and gouache – ranging from large-scale pieces to miniatures. Some have been exhibited before, while others will be seen publicly for the first time. A selection of her sketchbooks will also be on display, offering viewers a glimpse into the spaces where her ideas first took shape.

Explaining her decision, Beckett said that at almost 80, and after a year of declining health, her children encouraged her to return to the UK to be closer to family.

“And actually, it feels right. I'm going to learn a new song in my 80s. I'm looking at it as a blessing that I have such great children, and I will have my own little flat.”

Though the move marks the end of an era, it is not the end of her creative life. Beckett intends to continue painting, although on a smaller scale. The vast canvases that demand physical stamina may no longer be possible, and she admits she does not yet know how, or if, her work will change.

Alongside painting, she is also working on a book of poetry with illustrations, a project she plans to continue as she settles into her new surroundings.

Beckett’s bond with TT runs deep and defies easy explanation. She first arrived on the island at just 20 years old, travelling from Southampton with her three children and her then Trinidadian husband. Over the decades, she lived and worked in other countries, but she always returned to Trinidad.

She recalled that in 2015, she tried to relocate to the UK. She stayed for about nine months before realising she was not ready. So she came back to Trinidad.

“I don't know, Trinidad has just been entwined in my blood. I don't understand. It's all very mysterious, but that's the way it's been all my life. It's weird. I mean, there's so many things about Trinidad which really are fabulous, which I shall treasure.”

That love found expression in her first book of poetry, Iere: Living in the Land of the Humming Bird, launched in 2024. In the author’s notes, Beckett reflected that TT cradled her as both a poet and an artist. It was the place where she found her voice. The book became her love song to the island, celebrating its physical beauty, contradictions and cultures, while also grieving its suffering.

The impending move inspired a new poem, My Song, highlighting that, while it is a departure, it is not an ending. The first two verses read:

“Do not call this ending,

do not name it closure,

I know how to carry the sun

in the palms of my hands,

dye drab walls with colour.

“There's no need to shout ‘So long’

or wave goodbye,

mango juice has stained my mouth;

Black Stalin’s Cry of the Caribbean

engraved upon my heart.”

Beckett told Newsday that preparing for her final exhibition and packing up decades of life in TT has been deeply emotional.

“I feel a complicated level of feelings in that I'm very glad and happy that I've had this opportunity all my life to exhibit here in the first place. And this is a farewell, and a thank you to the wonderful country. I had an extraordinary life here, which I have to be very, very grateful for.

“And, I suppose, there's the sadness because, inevitably, saying goodbye to all this is sad. But at the same time, I do believe that the timing is correct for me to go back to Europe and be near my family.

“And I'm very, very blessed to have somewhere to go and to have my fabulous kids around, my cousins and family, and good friends. So there’s a lot to look forward to even though it’s going to be new in a lot of ways, as nothing stands still in your absence.”

As she prepares to leave, Beckett reflects that focusing on the small good things in life reveals just how blessed we are. She encourages everyone to do the same rather than wasting time wishing things were different.

Echoes of a Lifetime will be on show at Horizons Art Gallery on Mucurapo Road, St James from January 21 to 24.