Description
This year (2016) I took part in Carnival Expo – the largest indoor UK Carnival event. I had a little 2m x 3m booth to fill and this was the first time I would be showing any of my work anywhere in London. Needless to say I was painting like there was no tomorrow! Basically, I knuckled down and did 24 paintings in 2 months! And they were alll about the joy and life that is T&T Carnival!
I fell in love with “Cheers to Life”, a song from T&T Carnival 2016 by The Voice. It was such a positive piece, so full of the joy of living that characterises how you feel when you play mas’ in T&T Carnival. I knew by the time I hit repeat on my player that I would be doing a painting inspired by this tune. The question was… what?
In my mad dash to produce enough paintings for Carnival Expo (in the end I had way too many! LOL!), I was browsing through some of my best friend and talented photographer, Stefan Simmons‘ facebook photos. I know Stefan photographs Carnival every year and I love his pics so I went browsing his pics, hoping to find some inspiration while I had my soca blasting in the background.
I happened upon this photo he took of a woman in full flowing beautiful costume on the road, playing mas’ and I fell in love with the vibrancy, the colours, the movement, the flow… so I let my imagination run with it. “From You Wake Up This Morning” is the result.
It’s bright and colourful swathes of colour and pattern flowing across the canvas like a giant caftan blowing in the breeze as the wearer throws her head back in jubilation. Rise powerful woman, the morning is yours!
This piece was part of the collection I created especially for Carnival Expo 2016, which was held at The Oval in London.
