Caribbean Sea

Size: 50 cm x 70 cm

Materials: High Quality Trapunto Glass, Silk Fibres, Framed

The first visit to the Island was when I was 8 years of age in 1993. It was my first holiday in the tropics. Everything seemed so different compared to previous European holidays. The sun was so fierce, the beaches were white sand and the colours of the sea were a mixture of blues and greens. I returned to the Island in April 2000 for a personal art study trip taking photographs and making sketches in preparation for my school work. I recall on one day a storm occurred resulting in the whole island being overcast with dark grey skies and noticing how the sea changed colour to a kaleidoscope of dark blues. On returning in 2008 the blueness of the sea was incredible, several of the wooden shacks had been painted with bright colours such as yellow, violet and pink which the sunlight intensified. Compared to the Seychelles there seemed more open space and the blue sky was always noticeable combining with the sunlight to give a sense of crispness to any view. The sense of place includes colour, one of joy, fun and atmosphere that is laid back and slow in pace with the people being just as friendly outside of the hotel grounds as within them. Therefore, for me there is something very special about Barbados - a sense of belonging maybe - compared to the other islands of the Caribbean I have experienced.

Summary of comments made by visitors to exhibition kindly sponsored by Schott Glass: I love that. I just love it. I love blue for a starters. I mean that to me is just the ocean. You’ve got the greens and the turquoise all the different colours of the ocean. And I can sit and stare at that all day. I really could. This one just steals the show. And I use to be a sailor on the shipping docks on these tropical islands so the sea means a lot to me and this is just, well, spot on. You can really get in the picture, you know, with your head. And again the detail in each bit it actually looks like you can see the wave inside of each one to give that sort of flowing effect. I love the way you have overlapped it, you know like here, where it actually goes behind. You can see all the individual waves coming through. It really is a work of art. A piece of art, work of art. How does it make me feel? Well as I say I can just sit here and stare at that. You disappear don’t know. Your in your own little world. Definitely not hardness. The fabrics softness and colour. It’s beautiful . Really is.