Over the years we’ve seen enough paintings of seas, breeze and coconut trees, the holy trinity of Belizean nature painting. Sure enough in this coastal country it’s hard to ignore those three. And that’s why artists Charles Chavannes went looking for new vistas, new horizons to capture. That quest took him to Italy where he’s been for the last three years. He came back “with pictures in his eyes” as they say and is sharing that new worldview at an exhibit that opens tonight. We got a preview.
Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
You have probably read before so it go a popular cartoon that appears weekly in the reporter newspaper but what you may not now about the Belizean cartoonist Charlie Chavannes is quite the versatile artist. And while he may have had the skills it took Charlie some twenty years to make the progression from a cartoonist to a self made contemporary artist.
Charlie Chavannes, Artist
“So I started to read articles and tried to emulate the painters I liked. I found it so difficult that I had to stop and analyze what they were doing and it took me quite a while to do it but I was determined to do it. I don’t know if I’ve succeeded but the result of that is what you are seeing here. Most of what you are seeing here is a collection I started last year and since January until like a couple months ago.”
And what you see mounted on the walls of the Image Factory are scenes from
small Italian villages found along one of that country’s greatest lakes, Lake Garda. Charlie Chavannes has been living in Verona, Italy for the past three years.
Charlie Chavannes,
“I do not want to take anything away from oil painters or any other medium, I just like the uncertainty of water colour. I like to be surprised at the end. I don’t know what’s going to happen when I drop this colour into another colour or when I make this particular stroke, you can never be certain. The day might be humid, your paper might be damp, it does whatever it wants and this is the thing that challenges me.”
While most painters will take pictures of favourite scenes and then use the photos to help them remember the subject snapped to do a water colour paintings Charlie paints from mostly what he remembers after a simple walking the street or visit to a particular location.
Charlie Chavannes, Artist
“We also do a double take when we see a particular place or a particular house or fence or something and most people don’t ask themselves why. Me, there is something about the competition that I see and I feel compelled to do something about it. For me it just means composing a picture. So if I happen to take a photograph or if I have a paper and a pencil and I do a sketch, then I go home and I will put it together and just balance the way I think it needs to be.
Most of the scenes that you see around here were inspired by places I’ve seen in and around. Some are Venice, some are from a Lake in the northeast that’s called Lake Garda. These are very old buildings, buildings with a lot of character, medieval, buildings that I just like the way they look I decided to do something about.”
The exhibition dubbed Acquarelli Erranti which is Italian for wandering watercolours will run for three weeks. It officially opened at seven this evening.
