Sept. 22, 2004 — Proceeds from this Friday's Art Show Monthly reception, a collaborative effort between Alexander's Bella Blu and Gallery St. Thomas, will go to aid the people of Grenada, most of whom are homeless as the result of Hurricane Ivan's passage over the island earlier this month. The show is fittingly dubbed "The Caribbean Community."
And for the art, participants will get to meet St. Croix artist Preston Doane and experience his unique original art and giclee reproductions,which depict scenes from the many different island vantage points of the Eastern Caribbean.
Doane paints with acrylics, often on brown linen – his "canvas" of choice. He is also known to buff down a painting to create a distressed look or build up a canvas using found materials, fabricated constructions and collages, sometimes collaging entire components of a composition, according to Claire Ochoa, owner of Gallery St. Thomas, where Doane's art is normally displayed on St. Thomas.
Doane, who learned to use acrylics from a Chinese artist in Trinidad, is thought of in art circles, where he has traveled and shown his work widely over the last 50 years, as a sophisticated primitive painter.
All of the works will be available for sale and Ochoa and restaurateur Alexander Treml have agreed to donate 20 percent of the proceeds from the show sales to the Grenada relief efforts organized locally.
The reception will be held from 5 – 7 p.m. Friday at Bella Blu in Frenctown.
For more information contact Gallery St. Thomas at 777-6363 or preview the show at www.GalleryStThomas.com.
To make dinner reservations post show, call 774-4349
The exhibit will hang at Bella Blu through Thursday Oct. 21.
