Tobagonian Artist Martin Superville has completed his 30-day painting challenge.
On June 1st, he endeavoured to paint one image per day of various aspects of the iconic Pigeon Point Beach.
TTT was there when he begun the challenge at the Art Gallery in Lowlands, and now we can see the final product.
It was not an easy feat, but artist Martin Superville is pleased that he was able to accomplish painting 30 images of Pigeon Point in 30 days. He started with this painting and documented the journey everyday on social media.
“A lot of the work is done behind the scenes, even though you start it initially a quick one hour, you know I did some live sessions on youtube, but the majority of work is behind the scene and it is a cool night and day challenge but an enjoyable one.”
Mr. Superville is best known for painting portraits, but as he looked for a meaningful way to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his residency in Tobago, he decided to turn his attention to the island’s scenery. He was inspired by a similar artistic challenge undertaken by fellow artist Nicholas Huggins.
“Painting coconut trees to me is one of the hardest trees to paint, because of all those intricate little branches so i tried to use… to show them breezy, is on the beach, the coconut trees have to dance, i paint dancers so the coconut trees have to dance too, you can’t have them standing by themselves.”
Mr Superville wants other artists to understand that they can challenge themselves, pushing boundaries, to produce a lot more art, but warns it requires dedication and discipline.
“It is a job, you have to get up in the morning, set your time, and get at it. And the benefit is that you get to work at home so there is a freedom but you still have to discipline yourself, a lot of discipline.”
As president of the Tobago Visual Arts Association, he also hopes the challenge brings awareness to the calibar of Tobago based artists. He wants the Chief Secretary to consider including Tobago artists in the decor of the new airport terminal.
“Definitely the artists should get a little something, we have been working a long time for commissions like this, so this is the opportunity that I think Tobago could see their creatives, really good work, because there have a lot of good people here, once it is chosen nicely.”
All 30 of Mr Superville’s paintings are expected to be on display at Horizon’s Art Gallery in St. James from July 8th.