Costumier Margaret Sheppard is well known for her spectacular designs, which have graced many a stage in T&T. She is also a painter and will be having an independent exhibition of her work on November 19.
Sheppard said she has been painting for most of her life but it took a backseat to the sewing, which was how she earned her living.
“I had a solo exhibition many years ago in the 80s and I’ve had two joint exhibitions over the last couple of years with my son [artist Peter Sheppard]. I’ve always said I was going to have another one, one of these days, and I suddenly realised it had to happen soon or it’s not going to happen at all. I said it has to be this year, I have no big shows coming up and I’m going to work on it, be brave and do this all on my own.”
Sheppard said she paints landscapes in acrylics, in a similar fashion to her son, though she has no formal art training. She sometimes goes through a similar process as writers, where her paintings take on a life of their own.
“The paintings are all local landscapes, some out of my head, others real places. I work mostly from photographs but sometimes I’ll start to paint something from a photograph and during the course of the painting it might change a little bit so it’s not exactly how the place really is, it might have an extra tree or something a little different. Sometimes they take a life of their own and they decide exactly what they want to be without any help from me at all. It’s all places where I’d like to be—a lot of rivers, a lot of waterfalls, rocks and trees.”
Sheppard said her last exhibition, in 2011, featured paintings of abandoned houses, but this exhibition is different.
“I love all the little old houses in Trinidad and it dawned on me that each of these houses has such a story that they could tell if we only knew what had happened in them over the years. This year I decided it had to be a little bit different. There are still one or two old houses but I kept away from that sort of feeling and went a bit more out into nature.”
She added, “I’m hoping people will come and enjoy places that are still not destroyed by mankind and their garbage. There’s no garbage in my paintings, no Styrofoam boxes and cups, no KFC boxes. Actually, one painting has just a little bit of garbage in it because it’s outside a little old shop but everywhere else it’s how we would like the countryside to be. You may see a few stray dogs but that’s about it.”
The exhibition will be held at 101 Art Gallery on Woodford Street, opens November 19 at 5 pm and continues until November 21.
Buyers wishing a private view can make an appointment for November 19 from noon-4 pm.
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