the Art of Alison Chapman-Andrews

24" x 24" acrylic and collage

Landscape Revisited

A verandah corner at Martins Bay.

Somebody had found the two bleached floats, washed away from fishing nets. To this still life, I added the dead coconut branch from the beach. Through the slats of the enclosing rail, made from rough wood, is seen a coconut tree with two hanging dead leaves. The canvas is textured by papers, burlap, and bark cloth. These natural textures are painted over in acrylic.

Light streams through the rail producing a strong pattern. The sea is seen at the top right. These houses on the bracing East Coast of Barbados were where families took their summer holidays, away from heat of Bridgetown. They were called Bay Houses. My favourite piece in the collage, is the button left on the cloth which echoes the round floats.

48" x 60" acrylic

Private Collection

Below Layne Bridge was a magnificent gully with Royal palms on the left, and a stream with coconut trees. In the painting the sun and moon appear simultaneously. Under a straight horizon orange land symbolizes the heat compared to the coolness in the gully with its blues and greens. Each tree trunk is patterned differently. On the gully floor the plantation that owns it tried growing red and pink ginger lilies, seen in centre.

14" x  14" acrylic on machine knitting

Private Collection

24" x 24" acrylic and burlap on canvas

Private collection

“On returning to the Flower Forest the tree that was the source of

‘Big Canoe’ from 1999 had grown out of recognition. What were noticeable were the low, blue horizon and the light from the upper sky, which shone through the trees. Below the vegetation seemed impenetrable.

Here the lower half was covered in rough and distorted burlap, before being painted on In this lower darkness roughly shaped and distorted burlap,

has been painted over with acrylic.”