Young at Art

During the summer camp for the J.J. Robinson Trust (http://www.jjrtrust.com) I met many young, talented and eager artists. Two of the girls, Kerry and Kelliann Baptiste live close to our workshop and I offered them to come to my place and learn more craft during their summer holidays.

In August Grenada was celebrating for the first time the Grenada Chocolate Fest (http://chocolate.truebluebay.com/) and part of that fest was a themed art exhibition and a craft bazaar.

When I told the two young girls about the art exhibition they were keen and enthusiastic and full of ideas of what could be done. My husband has a wood-workshop and soon had to cut hardboard in various sizes and produce the fitting frames.

Everybody was excitedly awaiting the big day of the opening; the whole family came to support the two girls. Between the two of them, they produced 5 paintings and 1 craft piece. The exhibition at Art and Soul (http://artandsoulgrenada.com/) draw a lot of people and was an absolute success. The girls sold all their pieces they made!

We thought we could take some of the pieces to sell at the Craft Bazaar that was taking place in the same week but as they sold everything we had to go back to work quickly.

Another 3 paintings and earrings were produced. There was not a huge crowd of visitors and buyers but even so the girls sold 2 paintings and 1 pair of earrings. They spent the whole day at the bazaar, interacting with other artists, craft people and visitors. They looked after our table and decided on the prices.

It was a great experience for them and we all hope we can participate in further exhibitions and craft bazaars. As school has started again, they will be limited with spare time but will keep working.

I would like to point out again, that those 2 girls – like many other children in Grenada – do not have the supplies and tools to produce anything like what they did. It was the first time for them to work with Acrylic paint, wood and a dremel tool.

Back to work to get ready for the bazaar during the Chocolate Festival!

To an Unborn Pauper Child has been painted to a poem by Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) http://www2.fiu.edu/~pbk/Texts/hardy.html