RENOWNED Guyanese artist, poet, writer and musician, Stanley Greaves celebrated his 80th birth anniversary last Saturday in a manner befitting his talents and achievements. 

His latest series of paintings called ‘Dialogue with Wilson Harris’ was launched at the Guyana National Art Gallery, Castellani House.
Described as the ‘Leonardo of Guyana’ by Deputy Chairman of the Castellani House Management Committee, Philbert Gajadhar, Greaves’ exhibition attracted a full Castellani House that included many of his friends and well-wishers.
Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony, in his address to the gathering, expressed his gratitude to the famed artist for all he has done over the years to promote art in Guyana. He noted that although Greaves resides overseas, he is always available as a mentor to the students of Burrowes School of Art and an eager judge in the National Visual Arts Competition.
According to the artist, “The entire exercise of reading the novels and relating events, concepts to my own experiences allowed the paintings to be done. This is the reason for the title of the series ‘Dialogue With Wilson Harris’. This series had a start in the 1960’s but I was not really prepared to continue until 2011, finishing in April 2014.”

“It is quite possible to do 24 paintings each on several novels. Restraint had to be exercised. The last novel ‘The Ghost of Memory’ is particularly seductive. Who knows what the future holds?”
Wilson Harris, who initially wrote poetry, has become a well-known novelist and essayist. The writings of Sir Wilson Harris are often described as experimental and innovative. Harris, in his life, worked as surveyor and subsequently possessed a deep connection to the Guyana Forest, which is enforced and identified in his works.

INTRIGUED
Stanley Greaves was intrigued by the mystery of the forest from a young age and after reading Harris’s Palace of the Peacock and The Whole Armor years later, indentified with nature more than just as an observer.

Other Harris novels based on the Guyana hinterland provided him with a link to understanding the nature of the impact of the landscape on life forms and its impact on his own way of seeing/sensing the place of things/ events in his works. To create paintings based on reading the novels, therefore, seemed one way to deepen such experiences.

VISUAL LANGUAGE
“The problem was finding a related visual language given the complexity of the novels…at the conclusion of the project, I felt that the paintings showed the evolution of a visual language where the visual complexity, illustrative mode in the earlier series was shunned in favour of presenting a single dramatic moment or image as a symbolic interpretation,” the artist said.

MUSICAL RENDITIONS
Before Minister Anthony declared the exhibition opened, those present at the ceremony were treated to wonderful musical renditions by Ras Camo Williams, drumming by Osaze, poetry recitals by friends of Greaves, Konya Addo, Vanda Radzik and a ‘Salute to Stanley Greaves’ by Dr Rupert Roopnarine.
Greaves then reminded his guests that he was also a man of music and gave a surprise guitar performance with his former band mate, vocalist Ena Harvey who wooed the audience with her beautiful renditions.
And, of course, the birthday celebrations saw Greaves ‘carving’ his birthday cake and doing his birthday ‘shake-a-leg’ (dance).
Stanley Greaves was born 1934 in Guyana where he received his formal education. He taught at the St. Stanislaus Secondary School, Berbice High School, Queen’s College and Burrowes School of Art. He was a member of the original Arts and Craft panel that designed the first syllabus for the Caribbean Examination Council.

RENOWNED PRIZE WINNER
Greaves has won prizes nationally, regionally and internationally for his works in the art disciplines of painting, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, pen and ink drawings and calligraphy. He has worked consistently in art and poetry together over the years.
The captivating ‘Dialogue With Wilson Harris’ will be exhibited until November 29 at Castellani House, on the corner of Vlissengen Road and Homestretch Avenue in Georgetown. Admission is free.