The Tribune

By JEFFARAH GIBSON Tribune Features Writer NOW that John Beadle's first solo exhibition "Nature's Lines" has come to a close, the Bahamian artist is getting ready to create his next body of work. 'Nature's Lines' went up at the Central Bank last month and featured pieces made from natural materials like wood and vine. For the exhibit, the veteran artist used salvaged materials in a creative way and explored their natural lines. Although it seemed like nature itself was the central theme for the show, the artist said he was actually seeking to emphasise the lines in which the materials grew naturally. "Nature is only a part of the title. The more important part of the title is lines. The exhibition's title is 'Nature's Lines'. I wanted to hint at the fact that these lines, as I describe them, were already formed as natural plant growth. "I would not over-emphasise the importance of nature. I think I can make an argument that a drawn line made by my hand is also of nature. The naming is simply to allow viewers to engage the work somewhat on my terms. I wanted to introduce these dynamic sculptural forms as natural before I try to camouflage this fact," he said. Mr Beadle's said he attempted to give each piece life by using striking colours. "Paint broadens the experience and slows down the viewers' reading of the material as wood. It allows the viewers to think of the animated structures as something more plastic, more exotic than wood. Paint strips away, for however long it takes the viewer to come to the realisation that the substantial material of the exhibition is wood. Some prejudice may come with the first impression of it being wood. Paint allows me to make a connection with the traditional drawing materials of charcoal, chalk on white ground. Paint enables greater orchestration of components, one to another, through contrast and similarity," he explained. During the time Mr Beadle created the pieces for 'Nature's Lines', he was also thinking about his next project. "I am now thinking about the next body of work. In the beginning stages of making the work for the past show I was actually making two bodies of work; the first for the 'Nature's Lines' exhibition and the second is a body of painting around the theme 'Go Back and Fetch It'. It is a body of painting that again reconsiders some of the things I have been doing in my past with image making and paint manipulation while at the same time mining my environment for new imagery and ideas to support the narrative," he told Tribune Arts. Although the exhibit is no longer on display at the Central Bank, people interested in viewing Mr Beadle's work in 'Nature's Lines' can do so privately by making arrangements with the artist.