Three artists embrace Mother Nature in Gran Couva

Sometimes light emerges from unimaginable darkness.

When the pandemic gripped the world and sent us all into lockdown, three Trinidadian women artists ventured out of their homes and out of the gloom to find the light abundantly clear in Gran Couva, in Central Trinidad.

“2020 started with covid19, and I had just finished breast cancer surgery,” said Greer Jones-Woodham.

“One day, I met Karen De Verteuil in the grocery store. She suggested we paint in Gran Couva, and that was the beginning of my healing.”

Soon, Beverley Fitzwilliam-Harries made the trip to Gran Couva as well. The three artists explored the lush greenery.

“Being in the landscape was important,” said Jones-Woodham. “It was powerful getting out of our own space and into another, unfamiliar space.”

“I learned to see a place I am familiar with through their eyes,” said De Verteuil. “I saw things I never noticed before.”

With an artist's eye, they framed scenes that captured their imagination and began to paint.

A traveller’s palm, unfolding like a giant fan, captured all three artists' attention. The flaming red flowers of a Macuna Bennettii vine burst from the greenery and onto Jones-Woodham’s canvas; a banana tree pops into view in a De Verteuil painting. Fitzwilliam-Harries painted begonias, crotons, torches, lilies, ferns and hummingbird flowers. They painted in full view of the Picmock trees on the hillside.

“We used a lot of green in our paintings. We were all romancing turquoise and cerulean (blue). We played with red and orange,” said Fitzwilliam-Harries.

They arrived in Gran Couva early in the morning with canvases, paint brushes and paint – oil for De Verteuil and Jones-Woodham; acrylic paints and acrylic markers for Fitzwilliam-Harries. Jones-Woodham kept her supplies in a toolbox.

“If you see the chaos and confusion that came tumbling out of that box,” De Verteuil laughed.

They spent the day following the light circling and penetrating majestic samaan trees and a Bottle Brush tree.

“In covid, we were always searching for beauty. During that time, the soul couldn’t have been more depressed,” said Jones-Woodham.

In the solitude of their surroundings, they noted subtle changes in light happening around them.

“We were always watching the direction of the sun and where the negative spaces were,” said Fitzwilliam-Harries. “I learned so much about the use of light and the effect of heat on colour. The grass is so light – almost white– so I had to use my imagination and use mauve and red to capture what was happening. I learned how to walk through a garden and create a space to work and the camaraderie sent us on a trajectory we didn’t have in town.”

It was their escape from a pandemic and an emotional awakening – a deeper appreciation of the environment they all loved; more awareness of the vivid colours of that landscape. They fine-tuned their understanding of how nature impacted their senses in a time that sometimes seemed senseless.

“I always loved nature, but this time I really got into the bones of it because of covid,” said Fitzwilliam-Harries.

“I learned to embrace mother nature again,” said Jones-Woodham. “We had covid hanging over our heads. We didn’t know if we would survive. I had dealt with cancer, and it felt important to get out of myself. I could not heal unless I immersed myself in creativity. I remember on the last day of my treatment, the doctor said, ‘Go and live your life’, and that is what I tried to do in Gran Couva.”

They played jazz music while they painted.

“I like Nina Simone,” said Jones-Woodham. “Birds flying high, you know how I feel. Sun in the sky, you know how I feel. Breeze drifting on by, you know how I feel. It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day,” Simone sang in Feeling Good.

Fitzwilliam-Harries remembered De Verteuil saying, ‘I wish I could paint as Nina Simone sings.’

They listened to Amy Winehouse and conjured up the spirit and memories of Trinidadian painters like Isaiah Boodhoo who had been their mentor.

“Important issues came up for us women artists. Sometimes we’d get stuck and call an artist’s name who had passed – like Isaiah Boodoo,” said De Verteuil.

“At the end of the day, we saw how our souls captured space,” said Jones-Woodham.

The landscapes they painted fall within Impressionism developed in 19th century France when artists stepped out of their studios and into the outdoors to capture landscapes and everyday life. Other artists called the impressionists rebellious. Breaking the rules of traditional art and transcending boundaries made the impressionist iconoclasts. They were fiercely individualistic in their interpretations of life around them, but they all had one fixation in common: light and how it reflected on time and space.

“I am trying to be more impressionistic,” said De Verteuil, “but it is difficult to let go of reality.”

It’s not far-fetched to say the darkness and uncertainty of the pandemic led these three artists to a greater appreciation of the distinct and fleeting light of the tropics.

“It’s all about the light,” each artist insisted.

For these artists, capturing the light is as important as capturing the plants, trees and people.

“The pandemic sparked new interpretations and a new appreciation of things we took for granted, and this realisation oozes from this art,” said Jones-Woodham.

De Verteuil’s painting of a banana tree drenched in yellow, green and blue light captures the vividness of nature left untroubled during covid19.

Along with nature scenes, De Verteuil has a telling portrait of four women with arms entwined behind their backs called After Covid. No features appear on the women’s faces. They are all of us appreciating the first moment when we could reach out and touch someone again.

Quilted houses make up one of Jones-Woodham’s sculptures called All That Glitters. The spinning stand reveals totems with birds and a hand holding a gun.

“This is the chaos among us,” said Jones-Woodham. “This captures abuse, crime – you know, ‘All that glitters is not gold.’”

Some of her paintings feature a small canvas inserted into the large one, which gives the landscape a three-dimensional feeling and allows for two separate scenes to be juxtaposed. It is like a snapshot inside sprawling greenery.

The three artists still meet once a week to paint in Gran Couva.

The artists work will be featured in an art show called Gran Couva Conversations at the Art Society of TT, located on the corner of Jamaican Boulevard and St Vincent Avenue, Federation Park.

Opening night will be on January 31 from 6 pm to 8.30 pm. The exhibit runs from February 1 through February 5 from noon to 6 pm.

The show will feature 15 paintings from each artist and Jones-Woodham’s five totems.

Come and experience this artistic journey from darkness to light.