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He was the one that gave me a start at being an art dealer. I met Canute many years ago in the mid 1990’ s at his studio in Carriacou. He had very few paintings, and very little in materials. He gave me a painting, and I said-“ Why don’ t I try to help you?” When I got back to Grenada I sent him the materials, both the hard board he used for painting and paint. I continued that almost to the day he died. It came out to me about every two weeks; I would have the lumber yard cut a sheet of 4x8 and they would put it on the boat to Carriacou. He would cut them up further and make smaller paintings. I would buy and send all of the paints for him and he would send about 16 paintings back down to me every couple of weeks. I started selling them at the time I had a trucking business, and I would sell them right out of the garage. People were amazed becuase they’ d never bought such wondrous paintings
98 out of a garage. At one point we had a major buyer that came by private yacht just to meet me and she bought 16 of them”.
How is the art scene in Grenada?
“ The art scene in Grenada is very collaborative, we try to work together. Sometimes we share artists. Some years ago we were even thinking about a Southern Caribbean Biennale in Grenada. It would be a collaboration with all of the galleries, and it would be a world class event- I mean you would see private jets parked at the airport, art collectors from all over the world would attend.
Dominican Republic( 1992) was the last major Caribbean Biennale and Carriacou’ s own Canute Calliste exhibited there. I sent two of his paintings they were 4x8ft each. Its a requirement that they be painted on canvas.
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Canute didn’ t like to paint on canvas and a stretcher because of the bounce of the brush, he also produced smaller size paintings.
I suggested that he tack the canvas to a a 4x8 piece of plywood and work off of that.
What is absolutely amazing is these two were undeniably the best paintings he ever did. He painted them BEAUTIFULLY! The scale the composition was spot on”.
Do you hold exhibitions?
“ There’ s different ways we exhibit. I try to have a couple of paintings of each artist up on the walls. Once an artist appeals we have more to display in the storage room which is easy to access.
We can also organise special exhibitions of individual artists. Next will be Tricia Bethel a