Jean always read to our children, particularly at bedtime. It all started with Luke, our first born, who was as bright as a new shilling. I drew him many times. He has that face today.

This drawing was made in 1965, during my first term in the Manresa Road building that was Chelsea School of Art. The model was Brazilian and she sat very still. Classes were open to all and I frequently made use of the opportunity to work from life in what was becoming a conceptual school - life-drawing was not widely promoted as a positive activity. The drawing was made on Ingres paper so it has lasted well over the years.

I drew this aged 19, self portrait made in pen and ink in a sketch book bought by my mum.

Jean would often come home from working at Haggerston School and was drink a glass of sherry to wind down. This was made on such an occasion when I quickly sketched her

A large-scale drawing of my daughter, using charcoal

Jean bouncing. Luke on her knee. I found it very engaging because of the expression on Luke’s face and the expression on Jean’s face as they were so engaged with each other. I captured this very quickly before the moment was gone

A drawing of my brother Levi in Oxford in 1965

One of two sisters who modeled at Chelsea Art College evening class

This was a capture during an evening class at Chelsea Art College

I would spend a lot of time drawing at Chelsea Art College, this is taken from one of many sketchbooks from this period

Made when I lived in Clapton, c. 1974. Andrina, the model, visited the building and I noticed the shape of her facial features, and she agreed to pose for me

Made during a class at Sir John Cass School of Art

This model looked very emotionally sad, her body shape was very interesting; she looked emaciated.

This model was very sad and also emaciated looking. Again this was captured during a class at John Cass School of Art

Size: (Framed) 62cm x 51cm - (Unframed)15" x 11"

Medium: Watercolour

For several years while working full-time, watercolour was my main medium. This  interest in watercolour was inspired largely by Dr Leonard McComb whose work I greatly admired.  This piece was made from freesias bought locally.

Size: 

Medium: Watercolour

Size: (Framed) 32cm x 30cm 

medium: watercolour

Size: 28cm x 26.5cm (Unframed)

Material: Watercolour

This bouquet of white flowers was painted one Sunday afternoon.  The lightness of the subject and the softness of the paint made for a wonderful experience.

Size: 33cm x 30.5cm (Unframed)

Medium: Watercolour

Size: 57cm x 51cm (Framed)

Medium: Watercolour

Size: 47cm x 37cm (Unframed)

Medium: Watercolour

Size: 27.5cm x 19cm (Unframed)

Medium: Watercolour

Size: 27.5cm x 19cm (Unframed)

Medium: Watercolour

This self-portrait was made in 1979, when Jean and I were living in council accommodation for teachers in North London. We were both working part-time at Haggerston Girls’ School where we met.The flat was on the second floor of a block and surrounded by other high-rise buildings. As such, the light was poor, the room and my skin, dark. To lighten the composition, therefore, I made a paper hat of yellow sugar paper which brought lighter colours and balance to the painting.

This small painting of my youngest brother John reading is one of my earliest surviving piece. It was painted in the same year I started my three years of study at Chelsea School of Art in London and was made rapidly in one sitting. The canvas is badly damaged having been poorly stored in the loft of my family home for three decades.

This is my first oil painting. It is based on street carnival in a Caribbean setting and was a very private piece, I simply didn’t show such work to staff or students from Oxford School of Art or later Chelsea School of Art. That secrecy about things Caribbean, reminds me of the secrecy maintained in the family household about our culinary preferences - we din’t like ‘English’ people coming into the house and seeing what we ate - yams, sweet potatoes, eddoes, plantains, okras, etc. I guess we felt a little embarrassed about it as such foodstuff was not used or celebrated in ‘English’ cuisine.

My paintings about black people and Caribbean lifestyles were kept away from what we saw as prying possibly mocking eyes, yet I had a pressing and overwhelming need to make them. I didn’t print any of these pieces for assessment at the end of each year and never took them into college to share with anybody. There was college art and my personal Caribbean art that couldn’t be defiled by mockery or raciem.

When I applied to Chelsea I took The Dance at Reading Town Hall nothing else produced at home though I had made effective paintings of carnivals and Caribbean pastoral scenes and even paintings of family members such as Talking Music.

Talking music is based on a scene set in the family back living room in Oxford. In it, my father is seen arguing his point about a musical matter - chord progression. He used to be a choir master in Barbados and could read sheet music well. The person with the other instrument is Bob Reid. Bob was a family friend and regularly visited. Gerald in the grey suit, one of my two older brothers, is making his contribution to the discussion while Levi, bottom right, John, at the table and me in the corner of the room look on in fascination and imbibe the twists and turns of the argument.

This piece was painted at about the same time as my self-portrait. It was my intention at the time of making to further develop the painting but the challenge of maintaining the composition undisturbed was difficult. I consequently lost patience with it.

In the 1970s I, on a regular basis, drew from the nude model at Sir John Cass School of Art opposite the old library by Aldgate East tube station. I was fascinated by the architecture and inherent aged beauty of the buildings on Whitechapel Road and made this painting of the view as I saw it.

Date painted; 1978

Medium: Oil

Size: 16” x 20”

This oil was made in the small flat my wife and I had in Holloway North London. Still-life was a favourite subject then because the subject was always there and unchanging, a very necessary condition given each week was divided between teaching and painting.

Size: 85cm x 111cm x 4cm (Framed); 103 x 76cm (unframed) 

Mixed media

Dash in this work intended in to capture the vitality and joyfulness of a samba school parade at the sambadrome during the Rio carnival. To achieve this he introduced a network of cross-hatchings that float almost ethereally through the work and  create a sense of swirling movement. This layering of cross-hatching is a feature of Dash’s graphic technique.

Size: Framed 95cm x 59cm x 4cm; Unframed 46cm x 82cm

Media: Pen and ink and collage

The large-scale floats at the Rio carnival inspired The Float.  Designed to be eye-catching and striking, such structures address wide-ranging topics from enslavement to the benefits of education. 

Detail from Dancers Masquerade at the Sambadrome.

Mixed media

2012

Size: 76.5cm x 51cm (unframed)

Medium: Pen and ink and collage

This drawing was is based on an experience Dash and his wife, Jean, had in Rio while waiting for a bus to take them to the sambadrome.  Informed by the organisers that they should wait at the Fasano hotel, they were soon surrounded by chanting fans who had flocked there to catch a glimpse of celebrities who were guests of the hotel.  Among them was J Lo, the American superstar, who was in Brazil for carnival.  This drawing is based on the excitement that J Lo created in Rio that night.

Size: 54cm x 106cm x 4cm (Framed); 97cm x 45cm (Unframed)

Medium: Pen and ink

This pen and ink drawing, the first in this series of works, was inspired by the samba school parades at the Rio carnival in 2012.  From his lofty position in the packed stadium, Dash witnessed the drama and excitement of event that ran till dawn. Dancers at the Sambadrome celebrates the movement and spectacle of dancers on parade.

(Unframed 99cm x 55cm x 4cm; Framed 109cm x 65cm)

As student at Chelsea School of Art in the 1960s, Dash made regular train journeys between Oxford and London.  On such a trip he met an academic with whom he conversed about art and various related topics.  On discovering his particular interest in Caribbean festivals, his acquaintance introduced him to the topic of whirling dervish dancing. Dash has over the years retained fond memories of that conversation, which are the inspiration behind this piece.

Size: 

Mixed media

The concept of bacchanal in Western art conjures scenes of unbridled lust and gluttony.  Dash, however, referencing Jamaican popular culture, saw it as a theme for the joyful outpouring of joie-de-vivre at carnival, in spirit more akin to Breughel’s (1559) Battle of Carnival and Lent than Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights (circa 1500). The idea of bacchanal as a play or performance rather than a celebration of alcoholic or sexual indulgence, therefore, drives the purpose behind this work. 

Medium: Mixed media on handmade paper

This large piece plays with textures and forms and deals with a gathering of people for an event.

Size:  Framed 48cm x 84cm;  (Unframed) 70.5cm x 36cm

Medium: Pen and ink and collage

This drawing of a friend was made in the Autumn of 2020 during lockdown. It was developed from a photograph, something I very rarely do. I think it works well

This is one of several drawings made by me after my wife and I saw Crop Over in Barbados.

Mixed media on paper

Size: H71cm xW74cm (unframed)

This piece was made after two initial works on the theme of boat refugees in which greys are dark tones were used extensively. This piece and Refugees in a Blue Dinghy reversed this trend, the figures and their environments bathed in colour and awash with light. My intention here is to show that refugees exists in different contexts and shouldn't be stereotyped as being of a particular type.

Mixed media on paper mounted on card.

Size: H56cm x W97cm - (Also giclée copies: H34cm x W60cm) 

This is the second in the series of boat refugees pieces. Here the intention was to show the cramped and dangerous conditions in which many travelled and in some sad circumstamces met their deaths. Surely on such journeys, ones sense of identity and belonging are changed possibly forever. 

Mixed media on paper mounted on card.

Size: Framed H64cm X 83cmW - Unframed H55cm x W74cm

This was the first in the series of boat refugee pieces. In it I try to represent the extraordinary bravery of people who risk all in an attempt to start a new life in a safer, healthier and more life enhancing environment.

Mixed media on paper

Size: Diameter 16cm (unframed) H29cm x W29cm (framed)

New Arrivals is a small work, just 16cm diameter. It depicts a group of people arriving at a site where refugees are gathered.

Mixed media on paper

Size: H57cm x W42cm (unframed) - H66cm x W51cm (framed)

This colourful piece was made immediately after Drifting Without Power. As in that work, it attempts to depict the cramped, over-crowded conditions in which many boat refugees live, while on water; conditions in which personal space is seriously compromised and the dignity of privacy almost non-existent.

Mixed media on paper mounted on card.

Size: H55cm x W75cm (unframed)

As with most of the works in this series, there is an emphasis here on the cramped, dehumanising conditions in which people travel when in flight from terrible life circumstances. There is too an attempt to show the sense of lost and apprehension on the faces of many passengers, coupled with their feeling of isolation even in such horrendously crowded conditions. These people may, after all, have little in common with their fellow travellers apart from their shared flight from terror. 

In this detail a little girls holds a favourite teddy bear, whilst clinging to a loved and trusted adult, probably her father.

Mixed media on paper mounted on card.

Size: H49cm x W55cm (unframed)

In this piece I depict a group of refugees who had been taken aboard a rescue vessel at night. Wrapped in warm blankets, they rest or chat, presumably about their desperate experience.

Hopefully the title explains the thinking behind this piece, which is in keeping with the others in the series on boat refugees. Here a group of people of different backgrounds, ethnicities and origins embark on a flight in desperation from unbearable conditions to unknown challenges. Amid the uncertainty of what lays ahead, the disparate community of travellers finds means of coexistence in the confined space of the vessel. 

The piece shows a number of people crammed together in a small boat, with hardly enough room for the figures to sit except in some cases on the rim of the vessel. There is a red canopy for shelter but this too is totally inadequate for the number of travellers aboard.

Medium: Oil

Size: (28cm w x 36cm H)

In this small work, a group of migrants are seen in transit on a boat with one traveller finding space for herself on the tiny roof of the vessel. A large carrier bag is central to the work but a considerable portion of the lower half of the painting is given over to the ochre coloured hull, which in its stark simplicity runs counter to the congestion of the upper area of the composition.

Mixed media on handmade paper.

SOLD

Size: 

This carnival piece was inspired by the tradition of stick-fighting on the island of Barbados and the wider Caribbean. The figures in their robes and conical hats do hint at the Ku Klux Klan. While in Barbados, prior to our migration to Britain, my father, who had done seasonal work in the USA sometimes spoke of the evil deeds of the KKK. His stories were further augmented, however, on coming to Britain by our access to television and movies in which the barbarities of the KKK were depicted. The underlying theme in this work therefore is of symbolic resistance to racist oppression, the robed dancers speaking of the group represented and the sticks a determination to resist racial oppression.

Medium: Mixed media on handmade paper

Each Friday evening in Barbados thousands of locals and tourists alike head to the Oistins port to eat, drink, dance, meet friends and generally enjoy themselves. Many young people take the opportunity to show off their skills in breakdancing. This piece is a celebration of their passion for this challenging dance style.

Media: Medium: Mixed media on handmade paper

Size: 100cm H x 148cm W

We have a bike-garden feature which Jean has effectively used to showcase a variety of plants. This mixed-media piece was inspired by her work.

This piece was painted during the period of Covid-19 restrictions and coincided with the death of Frederick Nathaniel ‘Toots” Hibbert of Toots and Maytels. The piece is a celebration of Toots’ work and the joy I had listening to his music including Pressure Drop.

This mixed-media piece was made during lockdown. It shows a group of bystanders as they dance along with the music at the out door event.

Media: Pen and ink and gouache

SOLD

At twilight, a group of refugees set out on the perilous journey to a new life. This piece is intended to remind the viewer of the horror of parting in this way and taking a dangerous journey by boat to a new an uncertain future.

This pen and ink and gouache drawing was made during lockdown.

As indicated in the previous file, each Friday night in Barbados people head to Oistins to eat fish, meet friends and have a good chat. Many local young people, however, have other ideas. They use the occasion as an opportunity to share skills in breakdancing. Mostly performed on the stage of the auditorium, some go through their complex routines amongst the milling crowds, as seen here, on the floor in the open hall..

Mixed media on Handmade paper. The idea of crowds seen from a distance with some figures separate or even isolated while others seemingly morph into other bodies, was the inspiration behind this piece.

Mixed media on Paper

Size: 88cm H x 36Cm W)

This mixed media piece is a celebration of pansies and Jean’s good work in the garden.

(2016) Mixed Media

Jean had a pot of blue geraniums in our garden, which inspired this mixed media piece.

This sketchbook drawing in pen and ink and gouache shows a groups of festival attendees at an open air festival, still cloaked in sheets of plastic after a passing storm.

This is another mixed-media sketchbook drawing made during lockdown.

Size: 41cm x 79cm (Unframed)

Medium: Mixed media on handmade paper

SOLD

Mixed media

The kidnapping of school students by Boko Haram from their boarding school in Nigeria, was the inspiration for this mixed-media piece .

Framed 46cm x 80cm x 4cm: (Unframed) 70cm x 36cm

Mixed Media

Friday nights at Oistins fish market in Barbados was the inspiration behind this piece.  Friday nights at the Barbadian fishing port are occasions when rum flows and visitors feast on freshly caught fish at the open-air dining stalls. Inevitably in such a congested environment, there is queuing at the more popular stalls. People waiting in line for service at Oistins inspired this piece.

SOLD

2021. Mixed media, Pen and ink and Gouache on paper.

 Medium: Oil on plywood

Size:  H122 cm x W61cm

While working full-time, I found flower compositions a very convenient and exciting subject for painting.  Local florists knew what I was about and were often very supportive. Cut Flowers in a White Pot is typical of piece of that period. 

Medium: Oil on plywood

Size: 117cm x 74cm

This still-life was selected for showing at the Royal Academy but not hung.  It remains one of my favourite paintings of flowers in oils.

Medium: Oil on plywood

Size: H145cm x W86cm

My wife and I love walking on Hampstead Heath.  This still-life was made after such a walk.  It was inspired by rushes in a pond at the northern end of the Heath.

Medium: Oils on plywood

Size: H122 x W61cm

This was the first of my series of flowers paintings on timber to be regarded by me as a reasonably successful piece.

Medium: oils on plywood

Size: H122cm x W61cm

I sometimes enjoy painting still-life in different media.  This painting of gladiolas is one of several produced in the first decade of this century.

Medium: Oils on canvas

Size: H170cm x W135cm.

I was inspired to make this piece after visiting Kew Gardens with Jean in March 2017.

Medium: Oils on hardboard

Size: H129cm x W61cm

This piece was painted from life at my studio. Inherent to it was the challenge of accurately plotting the relationships between petals, leaves and stems across the composition. Each petal required careful observation in order to tease out the subtle tonal variations that make the stems work in space.

This was the first drawing in the ongoing series on the funeral of Dr Martin Luther King Jnr.

An exhibition at Barbados Museum in celebration of the life and work of Kamau Brathwaite, the Barbadian poet.

Josephine Dash.

John (my brother) David Thompson, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Levi (my brother) and me during the 198 Gallery opening.

With family and friends;

From left: Irene, Gemma Salisbury, Rachel Godman Morris, Rebecca (my daughter) Jean (my wife) and behind her Levi, Jean (my brother John’s wife) Sharon (Levi’s wife) Luke and John.

The sketchbook shown is from the mid-sixties and the drawing is of my brother John.

It was a pleasure being with George Shire at my show in Brixton. He is a leading intellectual in cultural studies and the arts and it was truly up-lifting being with him.

It was wonderful having such influential and significant guests at my show in Brixton. In the distant background are two other significant and influential guests - my sister-in-law Penny Godman and my wife Jean.

This photograph was take at the Private View to my show at 198 Gallery in Brixton.

Onika is a true friend and supporter. I shall always remember and value the trouble she went to in order to attend my show at 198 Gallery.

Levi and John (wearing hat) enjoy memories of posing for me as children.

I gave a presentation at this 2018 event at Tate Modern as a member of a group of artist invited by 198 Gallery.

At the Private View of Bold Black British. Revellers Whine at Mas is in the background.

Friday October 1, 2021

Tam, John, Paul,

I noticed that AGO have posted info on their website about 'Life Between Islands' exhibition in Canada. See links below:

https://ago.ca/exhibitions/life-between-islands

https://ago.ca/events/ago-friday-nights-life-between-islands-caribbean-british-art-1950s-now

https://ago.ca/events/jazzie-b-conversation

All best,

Cameron Amiri

Cameron Amiri

Director

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Felix & Spear

71 St. Mary's Road

London W5 5RG

E: cameron.amiri@felixandspear.com

W: www.felixandspear.com

I am thrilled to be participating in Life Between Islands at AGO.