Mélange Travel & Lifestyle Magazine October 2019 | Page 60
fashion industry, with unique,
skilled and globally
attractive models and industry
professionals. St. Lucia’s
own Vincent McDoom, who
recently received the British
Empire Medal, for Services to
Entertainment, from Her
Majesty Queen Elizabeth ll, in
her recent birthday honours,
has, from humble beginnings,
become an internationally
renowned fashion etiquette,
runway coach and artistic
director, as well as a well loved
TV personality, judge, film and
theatre actor, in France, his
adopted home.
The Ad Agency which brought
me to St. Lucia, became ill
fated, as the market evolved
and competition rose up to
challenge us. With all of this
in mind, and the desire to
work better with stronger
results, I met with a friend
whose talents lay in office
management, organisation
and business development
and laid out my case for yet
another, more interesting life.
background, combined with
an experienced business
manager.
That was 23 years ago. We
achieved a great deal in those
years and still do. Not least,
now best friends and married
What does all of this
with a business. We have
have to do with paint?
pushed the market, learned
Discussions of change are like and repurposed, innovated,
when you took too much food influenced and made our
on your plate at the buffet.
clients, past and present look
Each mouthful of ideas
extremely good. That’s why
only seems to increase the
we called it ‘Present Image
confusion in front of you.
Design’.
As my friend and I explored
the possibilities of business
together, the combination
seemed obvious; an
experienced digital design
service, with a uniquely
fine art, print, advertising,
branding analogue and digital
We live in and keep our
clients, very much in the
present. We present their
image to the world and we
design and create strategies
for their now and future
presence in their evolving
markets.
What does all of this have
to do with painting in the
Caribbean? be present, to be a part of
something new, and as old as
the ages.
Everything. Painting and life
are about layers of experience,
lessons learned and applied,
ideas formulated and folded
into a strong image. You
carry those layers to the next
project, ever expanding and
encompassing all you see and
seem. You have them forever. It taught me that this chain
of very different islands and
tastes is a bus stop. People
of all creeds and persuasions,
skills and backgrounds have
been getting on and off that
bus for centuries. They leave
something here and take
something of us wherever
they go.
The Caribbean has given
my life the colours that I so
desperately needed so many
years ago, I believe, to mix
and make others, spread
them, opaque or translucent
across everything I touch.
In return, I am influenced by
the people and the places I
encounter and express this
with a brush, a computer,
words or video, a website or a
conversation.
The Caribbean called me to
I am fortunate to have learned
to paint, print and draw and
build and design and being
patient and trusting of myself
and others, in a place that let
me do so, quietly watching
and learning from me. Fair
exchange as my best friend
says, is no robbery.
what I want. It’s my castle and
my peace of mind, my compay
segundo, my second best
friend, my accompaniment.
As I paint I often think on
things that happened in those
other lives.
These are the two which stand
out.
When I was sixteen and
announced to my father that
I wanted to be an artist. He
was horrified and said that it
would be better if I trained
to have a proper job. After a
huge amount of unnecessary
justification, I said sarcastically
“At least no-one can ever
retire me!” Be careful what
you wish for. I will be doing
this until I physically can’t.
I love to paint now. The other, I wrote down in
self analysis, before I left St.
Vincent.
It allows me to go to places
that I never thought of and do Your life is all your life, not just
the bits that you choose.
Illustrations:
Plate 1: : Altar Anatomy (2014) (detail)
Plate 2: Satisfaction (2013)
The Outsider (2010) (detail)
Plate 3: Jack’s Shirt (2012)
The Red Cloak (2014)
Plate 4: Dancing Black wrapped in Silver (2011) (detail)
Rendezvous (2012)
Plate 5: Today. We are. Our Father (2014)
Nopales Caliente (2014)
Plate 6: In the memory of elephants (2014)
More at: https://presentimage.com/drum-brae-gallery/
All images © copyright 2019, Gordon Keddie. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction by permission of the artist only.
Contact: [email protected]