Events

Beverly Valdez’ work is strongly influenced by her Caribbean heritage. Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, Beverly’s Caribbean background has had a profound impact on her life and her art. An alumna of Bishop Anstey High School, Beverly moved to the United States to study art at Howard University in Washington, D.C. There, she received a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts, graduating summa cum laude and a Master’s of Fine Arts degree. In recent years, Beverly studied under professional artists Beverly Ryan, Marsha Staiger, and Joyce McCarten.
Beverly began her career as a graphic designer, and for more than 25 years Beverly worked as a Graphic Design Manager and Creative Director in the design and communications field. In 2018 Beverly began painting as a full-time artist.

The color, energy, and vibrancy of Trinidad’s Carnival have been a constant source of stimulus for Beverly’s work. Her greatest inspiration, however, is derived from her love of the Caribbean, with its rich culture, dramatic coastlines, and colonial architecture. Her work reflects the pulsating energy and color that define Caribbean culture, geography, and landscape. Beverly works in acrylics, watercolor, and mixed media on paper, canvas, and wood.

Beverly had a successful first solo show at Horizon’s Art Gallery 2018. She followed that up with an exhibit at the Embassy of Trinidad and Tobago in Washington DC and participated in the Caribbean and Hispanic exhibition, ‘Caliente’, with artists from several Latin American and Caribbean countries in Maryland. Beverly also exhibited her work in several varied local group shows in the United States. Her paintings are to be found in collections in the USA and the Caribbean.

The best thing that ever happened to Jonathan Gladding was being sent to the Caribbean. He had been living in New York City, working as a computer artist for Sesame Street while trying to squeeze in his own art on the weekends and evenings.

Feeling the need to expand his horizons, Jonathan applied to be a volunteer in the Peace Corps and had the great fortune of being sent to the island of St. Lucia in July of 1999.

Serving as a woodwork instructor in the southern coastal village of Laborie, Jonathan found an unending supply of rich subject matter in the faces and postures of the school children and the people going about their daily lives. The pride in heritage and Kweyol culture combined with a sense of community and responsibility toward one another deeply impressed Jonathan and gave direction to his work.

Although Jonathan had been painting for years in a cubist style, he felt that realism was best suited to communicate the feelings and ideas that he wanted to share.

Jonathan has exhibited annually since 2001 in both individual and joint exhibitions. In January 2003, Jonathan was chosen as Artist of the Month by The Artist’s Magazine, the worlds leading magazine for serious active artists with a circulation of over 200,000.

In November 2005 he was awarded the Windsor Award and Newton Award of Excellence from the Best of America 2005 National Association of Oil and acrylic Painters Society Bolivar, Missouri. And, in 2005, was awarded first place at the New England Exhibition Cape Cod Art Association Barnstable, Massachusetts.

I was actually born in Point Fortin, where my father worked for Shell Oil Company. We then moved to  Rio Claro, before settling in Port of Spain; so I guess I still like the quietness of my childhood surroundings. Both my parents were artistic; everyone in the family seemed to be- uncles, cousins, so it was just a way of life for us… art and music, as natural as breathing.

I went to Holy Name Convent, then started working at Corbin Advertising, training in the art department. I soon after got married, had four children, moved to Canada, and then Puerto Rico, before returning to Trinidad; I painted very little over that time. Once back in Trinidad, however, I began getting involved in a variety of artistic endeavors- stage makeup for operas at Queen’s Hall, designing, building and painting set designs for a dance company’s stage shows. I painted portraits, designed costumes, fabric painted on clothing, body painted; I even painted a mural on a wall for a children’s daycare.

When my youngest child was about to enter secondary school I started a job in a picture framing business. I was so passionate, that five years later I became a partner in a new company, Horizons Framing and Decor, and then Horizons Art Gallery.

Over the years I’ve participated in several short-term courses with artists such as Roberta Stoddart, Isiah Boodhoo, and George Scribner, learning and benefiting from them all. My greatest appreciation, however, has to be for my dear friend Harry Bryden, who has always been supportive and encouraging. I paint with him sometimes, and hope to do so more often.

To say who my influences are would be too difficult, as I see and am affected by so much art. I love Boscoe Holder and Frida Khalo’s work, and would love to be able to paint like Boodhoo! Horizons will be twenty years old in 2016, and now that I have officially retired, much more of my time will be dedicated to painting.

As a child, Karen spent every spare moment drawing, painting, making paper dolls and designing clothing for them. She has always exhibited a natural affinity for art. A self taught artist, Karen exhibited her first works at the Women in Art Exhibition in 2000. She has since continued on strongly, becoming well known for her bright fauna and flora and her local scenery that is ever present in this joint show.

This year Karen produced a wide range of acrylic paintings of varying subject matter. With scenes such as lush, green forests, colourful dancers, serene beaches and bright lilies on the water’s surface, Karen has expertly captured the beauty she sees in her environment.

With eighteen Carnival-inspired solo exhibitions to his credit including acclaimed shows in South Florida and London, it is easy to understand why the media and critics call Brian Wong Won the Carnival artist.

The Trinidadian artist has been making mas for a decade, probably the only painter in the region to make the depiction of Carnival his raison d’etre.

Since his first solo show Pandemonium in 1996, where the painting titles were written in French as a tribute to Carnival’s ancestry, the artist has allowed the melee that is Trinidad Carnival to direct his gouache-on-paper creations.

But what do you expect from a man who grew up a stone’s throw away from the bacchanal, in a suburb called Woodbrook, where many mas camps call home and where the madness starts on Carnival Monday and Tuesday. Masqueraders usually assemble in one of Woodbrook’s beautiful squares before storming the capital and dingolaying through the city streets. Over three decades of mas have passed in front of him, from Minshall’s Paradise Lost to Lil Hart’s Anthony & Cleopatra.

Wong Won’s Carnival experience began at an early age with a Midnight Robber on Phillip Street one Carnival Monday in 1974. Carnival throughout the years would influence and colour his visual palette with the black of Jab Molassies, the rich red velvets of Gownmen and the pure whites of Fancy Sailors. Growing up surrounded by the intricate gingerbread architecture of suburban Woodbrook only sweetened the mix.

Although Wong Won has lived in Miami, Florida for the last 18 years, his work maintains its Trinidadian flavour, with themes and subjects that are diverse as the culture that bore him. The paintings are vibrant and detailed, with colours that run the gamut of the spectrum.

Though representational in nature, the work takes on a different perspective with regards to visual and aesthetic elements. Colour, indeed, plays an integral part of the picture, but so does the compositional treatment in the construction of the work.

In the paintings there seems to be no definite delineation of foreground and middle ground, but rather a combination of eschewed perspective that flows with the spectral sounds of pan and calypso. His paintings possess a spirit of their own, enthralling the viewer in a world known or unknown. Through the tapestry of details, a story or journey of discovery may unfold, offering up more to what is just apparent. When you view his work you can visually experience all the sounds and energy of Carnival leering out for your attention.

“My paintings try to compress everything—every detail, every emotion, the energy, and the atmospheres-everything into one. They take the viewer back into the carnival atmosphere; making him lost, enraptured and entangled in the intricate sea of form, line and colour,” the artist says. If you played mas the sensory voyage is even more heart felt and complete.

He works primarily in gouache, a water-based medium that has its origins as far back as the Italian Renaissance. A slightly flat and chalky medium, it proves amenable to his style and nature of painting. It gives him the clear, flat and precise colours that he seeks. He terms his work at times as “ reality in an animated existence”. They do not seek to be realist interpretations of events at all, but in fact have a far different purpose.

Wong Won’s work is part of several corporate collections, such as CLICO, BPTT, AT&T, Scotia Bank, Pfizer Pharmaceutical, the Government of Trinidad & Tobago and the National Museum of Trinidad & Tobago. His work has also been featured in BWIA Caribbean Beat Magazine, MACO Magazine, Upscale Magazine, Caribbean Travel & Life and the Latin American Bureau publications.

Ryan Williams is a young and dynamic artist.

He is has portrayed himself as a talented self-taught artist specializing in and commercial and fine art. As a gifted artist he media includes oil, pastels, watercolors, acrylic, charcoal, pen and ink and digital pixels, with subjects ranging from, seascapes, still life and imaginative.

Ryan’s work is displayed in some of the major galleries and banks in Trinidad. One of his masterpieces, a large mural entitled, ‘Broadway’ can be viewed at level 2 RBTT Bank Independence Square Port–of–Spain, On Location Galleries, West Mall, WYMM Art, Art Creators Galleries and Fast Colour Imaging, to name a few.

His work has also appeared in books ‘Great Estates in Trinidad’ and ‘Western Isles of Trinidad’ by Fr. Anthony de Verteuil and ‘Talk dat Talk’ and ‘Trini Talk’ by Miguel Brown.

Noel “Vau” Vaucrosson was born in 1932. He became an architect, having gained his Master’s Degree in 1967 from McGill University, Canada. He also studied painting and design for three years at L’Ecole des Beaux Arts in Montreal.

Vau started painting while still a student at Queen’s Royal College. He first exhibited with the Trinidad Art Society in 1955.

From 1971-1974 he was president of the Trinidad Art Society.

His paintings have been shown locally in mixed shows and in one-man exhibitions in Trinidad as well as in Canada. He is represented in the National Collection of Trinidad and Tobago and in private collections in the Caribbean, Canada, United States of America, England and Australia.

His works have been shown in the Trinidad and Tobago display at previous Sao Paulo Exhibitions and in the O.AS. Exhibition in Washington in 1972 and in other official exhibitions. Vaucrosson was a painter whose work ranges from realistic to the semi-abstract in style. The medium he favoured was water-colours. His main themes are based on Trinidad landscapes, street scenes and buildings.

Noel Vaucrosson was the winner of the Hummingbird Gold Medal in 1993 (Trinidad and Tobago).
Vaucrosson’s delicate brush work and translucent washes are treasures. He was able to capture the burnished heat on a galvanised roof at midday with one svelte stroke. Vaucrosson was a former President of the Trinidad Art Society and the Horticultural Society.

Art books and an exposure to Art through artist friend Carol Soo Lum influenced the teenaged years of Anne Louise Tam. While she had no formal training then, she would dabble in art, painting “au plein air” on painting outings with now renowned artist Carol Soo Lum. Training would come later when she would attend classes from Sheila Edwards and also attend many Art workshops including some by renowned artists including Jackie Hinkson, and Carlisle Harris.

Theatre opened a door to support her c