Portfolio opens April 30

Proper presentation before heading to market – attention to detail from the brushes of Don Small.

Picking a breadfruit for roasting or cou-cou, who’s to say? See all aspects of this phenomenal woman at Gallery Of Caribbean Art this Sunday.

By Carolle Bourne | Tue, April 24, 2012 - 12:00 AM

Spring is here, and so is another season of graduate work from the Barbados Community College – April 30 6:30 p.m., opening of Portfolio 2012, when students from the BFA studio art and Associate degree visual arts programmes will be wowing Barbadians with creativity, which can even earn internships at ad agencies.

If you prefer music, then this Portfolio is on April 26 at Frank Collymore Hall.

It’s also that time for a new season of Art 21 at BCC’s Morningside Gallery. Parts 1 and 2 start at 1 p.m. from April 13, as do Parts 3 and 4 on April 20.

This weekend there is the chance for Barbadians to check out the paintings of Don Small in tribute to his mother. This show appears to borrow its title in part from one of Afro-American poet Maya Angelou’s seminal works . . . .

Opening on the afternoon of Sunday, April 22, at the Gallery Of Caribbean Art in Speightstown, he presents details why he chose such close family for his canvases . . . .

“First and foremost the exhibition Gwendoline, The Phenomenal Woman is in honour to my mother and those women who are past middle age that worked in the sugar cane fields of Barbados. It has been in the works for years, with me doing a few paintings now and again.

“Early in 2011 while producing some paintings for Holetown Festival, I painted a few painting of my mother and I realized that I did not want to sell them off to some foreign person, never to be seen again, but wanted to exhibit them so all locals and visitors alike could see them in a gallery setting before they were sold . . . .

“This exhibition is for the young Barbadian woman especially, and for all young women the world over in general, to view and realize that if a woman nearing her 80s can still work so hard and survive from her small plot of land and a woman who spent her entire life in agriculture can make a menial living, they can do it as well . . . .”