.jpg)
On this visit, Brierley is proud to announce that he intends to launch an exhibition of a fresh, new ‘valued dozen’ of his paintings, which will literally blow the viewer off his/her feet. The collection can be viewed and accessed at ‘Sonel’s Party Décor and Craft Shoppe’, located at the north-eastern entrance to the General Post Office (GPO) Building on North Road, as of tomorrow, March 11, 2013.
Trained primarily at an art and design college in the United Kingdom (UK), Ian Brierley has served an apprenticeship as a photographic technician; and now into the digital age, he has combined the crafts, creating with camera images born from reality.
With an air of satisfaction, he now asserts, “Using creative imagination, I’ve transformed digitally and (added) finishing touches with paint brushes, pallette knives, fingers, sponges, or whatever I can lay my hands on to get the desired effect.”
Some of the images — such as the Jewel in the Jungle, a stunning and inspiring piece — depict the unspoiled beauty of Guyana s enchanting waterfall, the majestic Kaieteur Falls, among other local treasures.
A striking example, the Jewel in the Jungle was taken several years ago, and was used on the front cover of the hard back, coffee table book on Guyana by Hansib publications.
“I’ve heavily worked this painting, working fast and with confident brush strokes, applying acrilics to give the impasto effect; creating depth and texture, as I want people not just to look at it, but feel it,“ Brierley says.
Brierley has been able to enliven his images by creating a twinkle and sparkle effect, as he’s done in the Jewel of the Jungle Kaieteur Falls. A rare treasure on canvas, the painting of the Mighty Kaieteur Falls, on which he places a high premium, has a price tag of US$1200.
The next piece is Goddess of Guyana, a Mother Nature-influenced work, interpreted by a beautiful Goddess with strips of gold entwined into her hair as a crown, and a stunning backdrop with the dreamy Demerara River glistening with gold in the background. This is priced at US$600.
The Grafitti Girls characters, Brierley says, were his attempt to create cartoon characters of Caribbean females strutting their stuff. He has created 15 characters so far. He is working towards creating a scene which includes all of them in one painting – perhaps a scene recreating the hustle and bustle of Regent Street in Georgetown.
Also among this collection is an astounding portrait of his favourite jazz/blues singer, Amy Winehouse, as well as Caribbean girls. Other paintings include sceneries from the black water creeks along the Soesdyke/Linden Highway.
Through the years, his works have hung prominently on the walls of the Guyana and Ghanaian embassies and of the Royal Commonwealth Society in the heart of London, UK. As well, they have adorned the walls of souvenir stores in the UK and further afield. They also adorn eminent places in Ghana, Barbados, and Trinidad & Tobago.
Attesting to the quality of the items and the rate at which they sell is Managing Director of Sonel’s Party Decor and Party Shoppe, Mr. Elton Low, who has, for the last eight years or so, been marketing Brierley’s pieces. Low said that Brierley’s art and photographic images are always in demand, and are greatly admired by customers, not only locals, but tourists from the United States of America, the U.K., Caribbean islands and further afield.
“I am not being biased, but his paintings are of a high quality and possess a superior finish, and that gives his a competitive edge over the works produced by local artists. The local artists’ pieces appear very flat, and seem to be lacking in something. Tourists are so fascinated with Brier’s work that they eagerly grab it up. People are constantly making enquiries. When stocks run out, I am literally bombarded with requests for more; but unfortunately, it is not always available,” Low said.
The Sunday Pepperpot spoke with a few others around the craft mart, and the natural response was that people who really know about photographs and paintings, and are serious about getting ‘value for money’, naturally gravitate towards Brierley’s works.
“His pieces are impressive, fast-selling, and have that mark of distinction avidly sought after by persons who know real good stuff,” another customer said.
And so, in order to cash in on such items of worth, the public is urged to waste no time, but to hurry down to Sonel’s Craft Shoppe, where, beginning tomorrow, a literal treasure trove of Brierley’s masterpieces can be found.
