GUYANA’s natural beauty and diverse culture has had a significant impact on the work of Guyana-born artist, Ancel Boston-Daniel.  Privileged to travel the length and breadth of this country, she has been amazed by the majesty of waterfalls, hills and mountains; the elegance of exotic birds and gigantic trees of the forest; the delicacy of pretty flowers; the awesome beauty of sunsets and the allure of glistening sand pits.

Ancel marvels in her portfolio at the elegance that can be achieved from a piece of clay transformed into a decorative, functional and non-functional object that can transform a space the moment it enters. She is passionate about creating one-of-a-kind pieces in shape, texture and colour to embody who she is, and where she came from. The simple coconut, for example, makes a wonderful study for Ancel, who has rendered the texture of the fibres in ceramic.
The daughter of a one-time Traffic Chief of the Guyana Police Force, she grew up in a family of six at Peter’s Hall on the East Bank of Demerara. Her mother, a former secretary, resigned from her career to give her four children her undivided attention.
Ancel attended Peter’s Hall Primary in her early years, but moved with her parents and siblings to Berbice when she was only eight years old. Thereafter, she attended Corentyne Primary and later Skeldon Line Path Secondary. At the age of seventeen, her family moved once again to Georgetown, and she enrolled at St.  John’s College where she completed her C.X.C Examinations.
Though her parents recognised her artistic ability, they urged her to become a nurse. So she did, and trained at the St Joseph Mercy Hospital for three years in the professional nursing programme; but, clad in her pristine nursing uniform, she yearned to express herself artistically, so after eleven years of practise in the field of nursing, she resigned and taught at the secondary level of a private school for one year.
During this period, she also realised that she wanted to sing and write, so she began to write poetry, and engage in singing in an all-female gospel band called “Vision”. She also wrote songs. This gave her the confidence to enter the CARIFESTA Theme Song Competition, which she won in 2007. When the song was introduced at the CARFIFESTA celebrations in 2008, it encouraged her to enrol in Art school.
Hence, in September 2007, she commenced study at the Burrowes School of Art, where she majored in Ceramics and minored in Painting.  Her paintings sought to discover the hidden treasures of Guyana, so as to bring some form of originality to her paintings.
Migrating to Barbados to join her husband, she enrolled at the Barbados Community College, where she continued to follow her dream as an artist. At this college, she was exposed to forms of studio art, including printmaking, photography and video in the Bachelors Fine Art Degree Programme.
After a fortuitous meeting with the designer, Pamela Fox, who was also born in Guyana, the two became fast friends and have since collaborated on many projects. Last Wednesday, Ancel hosted her first exhibition in Guyana at the Dutch Bottle Café.