ART EXHIBITION - Abaco Journal April 1998

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ART EXHIBITION AT ABACO INN

The 15th Annual Art Exhibition was held at Abaco Inn, Elbow Cay, on 21st March. Featured were water colours from Bill Tilley, Mary Rice, Steve Best, Anne W Ray and Brigitte Bowyer-Carey as well as handsome wood carvings from 15-year-old Ricky Sweeting.

All of the scenes featured in the watercolours were of Hope Town and Elbow Cay. Buildings, flora, people, boat and beach scenes gave a fascinating overview of everyday life on the picturesque cay.

Brigitte Bowyer-Carey's works were distinctly different. She employs a 'wet on wet' technique which involves soaking the heavy paper before scrubbing and sizing it. She then paints with watercolour, producing a hazy, dreamy effect. Brigitte has to work fast and does detailed sketches as preparation for the paintings.

Brigitte's paintings on display were mainly underwater scenes of fish but there was also a boat scene in Hope Town Harbour and a pair of flourishing hummingbirds. Before the show was over Brigitte had sold four of her works.

Brigitte also had a few of her distinctive native fish on driftwood paintings. Not many, however, as on a recent trip to Nassau the driftwood paintings she had were sold - all but one. This featured a Nassau grouper that was amazingly life-like but, according to Brigitte, "...not colourful enough for the market."

Married to Hope Town native Donnie Carey, Brigitte lives with her husband on neighbouring Tilloo Cay.

The native cedar carvings of young Ricky Sweeting provided a counterpoint to the paintings on display. Ricky shows great maturity for his age and his works were very moderately priced. In addition to carved and turned birds, Ricky had a number of ornamental naturally-shaped miniature cabinets with recessed pull-out drawers that were both aesthetically pleasing and practical for jewellery storage. Although they were lacquered, the sculptures exuded that wonderful native cedar scent.

The more than 100 visitors to the Exhibition enjoyed a delicious barbecued grouper buffet luncheon on the patio overlooking the ocean where surfers wiped out regularly on the impressive offshore rollers. The proprietors of the Abaco Inn had once again presented that special Abaco ambience that mixes sophistication with informality.

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