Barrington Watson

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

June 9, 1992.
I was asked once by a local interrogator on television to say why I painted. For the first time that I could remember, I was at a loss of words.

Sometimes I think I paint because I have to, and sometimes I think I want to.  Sometimes I think it's the most frustrating occupation, and sometimes I think it is the most delightful. Every Painter knows that painting is not magic, but a tremendous amount of hard work with a glimmer of hope that one-day the happy accident may occur and that something beautiful will come out that has a lasting quality. So it is indeed, I paint each painting not necessarily expecting the happy accident to happen then, but rather preparing for the next one. It follows therefore, that my next painting is my most important one.

I started to paint and draw long before I realized it was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I was almost thrown out of high school when I neglected my schoolwork for the pleasures I got from drawing on anything and everything. At the rather precocious age of fourteen I realized, after I had painted a Christmas card for my mother, that nothing had ever given me quite as much satisfaction, and secretly I decided that when I grew up I would try to become an Artist.

At the age of twenty-one I went to England and Europe, where I spent the next ten years learning all I could about art and related subjects such as philosophy, psychology and the history of Art.  Visits to North and South America and Africa also helped. Being always fascinated by the human figure, I was fortunate enough to have as my first teacher, a master draftsman, the late Gerard DeRose, who was a classical draftsman of the school of the great French Painter Ingres, and Ruskin Spear, a highly respected British Painter.

I dare say my dedication and single mindedness helped me to do fairly well and when I returned to my home country I had the task of putting together what I had learned and to find my own way.

I used the human figure as the stimulating influence, because I find it to be both the most beautiful and most challenging as each situation and individual projects its own distinctive feel. The varieties are without end. To face a virgin canvas is always an awesome experience. It is already bounded by it's rectangular limitations and the first thought is a composition which is consciously arranged to control the viewers eye so that it will constantly return to linger on the pictorial center. My instincts seem to control me thereafter, almost forcing me to arrange my lightest light in the focal area causing a soothing effect or sometimes a harsh one. I rather enjoy painting subjects that deal with human existence, such as love, hate, greed, and envy all other human emotions. I do not set out to paint masterpieces, but I put into my paintings all that I know with the hope that the happy accident will occur. It could therefore be argued that I paint for posterity.

As most painters know, painting in the tropics is somewhat different from painting in temperate countries. The intense light tends to make on see colors more vividly and the tonal extremes seem to be even greater. I have tackled many subjects but to be involved in the physical act of painting is always an absorbing experience.

Most artists feel the influence of the technological age, the advent and the advancement of the camera and no doubt the conquest of space. We also attempt sometimes to recreate the subconscious embracing freedoms that are not logical in the conscious world. In Art all these things are valid and I am sure that all approaches are valid to both artist and viewer.

Although I have a facility I try not to be clever but instead project an honest reputation of what I experience and what I feel.

I remember the encouragement of some of my colleagues, several of whom have since departed this world. There was Charles White who thought I was very strong in my statements; Romair Bearden who felt that my treatment of watercolors was unique; Ben Enwanu who liked the luminosity of my flesh tones; Karl ParbooSingh who said that I was an artist for whom he had great respect; Dennis Williams who feels that I am a phenomenon in the Caribbean because of my ability to draw the human figure; Aubrey Williams who felt that my treatment of the atmosphere was very Zen.

I am conscious, however, of how long it took the world to move from a Rembrant to a Goya or to a Cezanne. The steps forward in advancement are always infinitesimal and despite the fragmentation of the visual arts in this century it is my belief that the image will return with dominance and more strength around the turn of the century.

BORN  

January 9, 1931, in the town on Lucea, Jamaica

EDUCATED  

Kingston College, Kingston, Jamaica
The London School of Printing and Graphic Art, London, England
The Royal College of Art, London, England
Rijiks Academic, Amsterdam, Holland
Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, Paris, France
Academia de Belle Arti, Rome, Italy
Academia de las Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain

AWARDS

1957     British Council Scholarship
1958-9  Jamaican Government Scholarship
1960     German Government Scholarship
1960     Dutch Government Scholarship
1961     Jamaican Government Travel Scholarship
1967     Special Award, Spanish Bienalle,
            First Barcelona International Exhibition
1971     Fullbright Professorship
1974     Gold Medal, Jamaica Festival
1980     Centenary Medal, Institute of Jamaica
1984     Prime Minister's Award for Excellence
1984     Commander of the Order of Distinction, C.D.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

1959-60  London School of Printing and Graphic Art, London, England
1961       Maidstone College of Art, Kent, England
1962       The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica
1962-6    Director Of Studies, Jamaica School of Art, Jamaica
1971-2    Artist in Residence, Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
1972-3    Visiting Professor of Art, Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
1974       "Kindred Spirits-African Artists in Diaspora", Harvard University, Boston,     
              Massachusetts, USA
1976       "Caribbean Art & Negro Art in America", Paine College, Argusta Georgia, USA

His work "The Pan Africanist" will be on display at the Broward County African-American Research Library and Cultural Center during the month of April 2004.