To begin at the beginning

My love affair with the nude dates back to 1971. In that year I was seduced by Enzo Plazzotta’s sculpture Jamaican Girl. The infatuation was such that I followed my temptress to the land of her birth. Thereafter, the Caribbean became my adopted home and the islanders, my subject matter. 

Enzo Plazzotta’s sculpture Jamaican Girl.

My book Notes on the Nude traces my work as a painter and sculptor of the female nude figure. The images that illustrate the book are from my series: Daughters of the Caribbean Sun.

The title of the series is taken from a poem by the Virgin Island poet Sheila Hyndman (1958-1991). Sheila gave me the courage to explore the sensuous. I timidly began in the 1980’s from my studio in the British Virgin Islands. A Portrait of Alice is collection of red chalk drawings that depicted the beauty of the Afro-Caribbean woman. Alice is discreetly veiled in my drawings, for I had not then the courage to work with the nude.

The above illustration is taken from my book and shows Alice with one of my first tentative drawings. In advance of publishing a large format collector's limited edition of the book I will be serializing the contents week by week, page by page, over the next few months. To access the pages to date click on the sidebar image for this book or go to: notesonthenude.blogspot.com.