The Tribune

By ALESHA CADET

Tribune Features Reporter

acadet@tribunemedia.net

THE WORK of seventeen young Bahamian painters was showcased at the Central Bank of The Bahamas Art Gallery last Thursday in an exhibition dubbed “Artshowfix”.

The students are all participants in the after school art programme “The Studio of Sonia Isaacs”, who is operated by Sonia Isaacs.

Ms Isaacs is known as a skilled mood painter, who has a versatile, bold, alive and colourful style of art. She has held many solo exhibitions over the years, but these days, she is dedicated to working in her studio providing private art classes to talented students like the seventeen artists who made the cut for the Central Bank exhibit.

So far, Sonia has had five students go to college to study art.

“They started with me at the age of twelve and as soon as they hit eighteen, they were off to college to push further. The youngest one tonight is ten years old and people are just giving phenomenal feedback to their work and I am so proud,” said Sonia.

Students chose their own themes, based on whatever they felt inspired by. “They have to feel their art and this is what I always encourage them; If you do not feel the work than you are not going to do good work,” she said.

Sonia said even though she only met with the students on Saturdays, they learned and progressed very quickly.

“Some children have been with me for seven years, as long as I’ve been open. A lot of people here have been telling me they want to get their children into classes because they see how well these children are doing,” she said.

Student artists Lex Fountain, Shaunae Lynes, Nicholas Sands and William Knowles sat down with Tribune Entertainment to share their thoughts. Their work stood amongst the 77 pieces on display.

Fourteen year old Lex said his artwork “Rasta Vibe” and “Street Performance” were inspired by an artist by the name of Justin Bua. He said he created his own personal pieces using the work of Justin Bua as a guide. Lex said most of his pieces are made mainly from acrylic and clay sculptures.

“I started drawing from I was six years old and my parents encouraged me and they decided to enrol me in Sonia’s class one day. This is the fourth exhibition I have been apart of so far and it has been good. People here are impressed by my work and I hope to go far enough to go to college and get a scholarship in art,” said Lex.

For 12 year old Shaunae Lynes, ever since her mom enrolled her in Sonia’s art classes, her talent has grown.

“Everyone is really impressed with my paintings especially at the age I am and they love my urban and Cuban painting. All I am getting is positive feedback and it makes me feel like I have actually accomplished many things,” said the 12 year old.

Shaunae said the exhibit helped her to have confidence in the paintings she did not like. She said all of her paintings explain the story of her life, step by step.

William Knowles, a 13 year old Christian Heritage School student said his three paintings - Down and Out, Ocean Life and Summer - and a geometric piece explain his life and the things around him.

“I have a very creative mind and that is what inspired me. My favourite piece is “Down and Out”. It depicts a drunk man who is almost out of it. He is beaten up and does not know what he is doing. Some of my pieces, I just go along with what’s in my mind and place it on a piece of paper,” said William.

William said a lot of people at the exhibit asked to purchase his pieces, but they were already sold at that time. He said that made him feel like a “boss”.

“I see myself going far with my artwork because I love art. I first started when I was very young and my mom got me into it because every where I went, I just wanted to draw on a piece of paper. Most of the time I do my art on Saturdays when I don’t have much going on, so that is mostly when I dedicate myself to it,” said William.

Ten year old Nicholas Sands said being the youngest in the show made him feel nervous, but also happy because he got almost all of his pieces sold. Nicholas has a total of six pieces on display.

“Reef is a picture with two sponges and finger coral. I was looking through a book one day and I found nice corals and then I just took them and added fish. People are telling me all of my pieces are very nice and it makes me happy. I want to be a part time artist and also a palaeontologist. I am inspired by Ms Sonia’s artwork and I just want to say thank you to all of my family for helping me to get here,” said Nicholas.

The exhibit runs until January 4, 2013.