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These two watercolors were the first West Indian pieces that Rebecca and I
bought. While vacationing in Grenada for ten days in March of 1997, we
spent time every day seeking venues that displayed local art. Out
itinerary had us circling the island, spending several days each in St.
George’s, Grenville, Sauteurs, and Victoria, then back to St. George’s.
In Grenville, we couldn’t find any galleries, so we asked the proprietor of a
variety shop where we might see art in the area. He told us that he knew
an artist—John Benjamin—who worked out of his home, and he phoned him to see if
we could visit. (We later learned that the shop owner was John Benjamin’s
brother, Reynold.) John drove into town to pick us up—we didn’t have a
car—and took us to his home to show us his work.
We immediately liked both John and his paintings. A talented, full-time
artist, he works mostly in watercolor, but occasionally produces an oil
painting. He also does illustrations (for flyers, brochures, books,
menus, etc.) for local merchants and organizations. He said doing
watercolors is fun, while he finds getting an oil done to his satisfaction can
be tortuous. John suggested that Picasso perhaps missed the boat during
his cubist period; he maintains that circles are more important and powerful
than cubes. The round world rotates while circling the sun. Circles
power motion, and that’s what his work often shows.
John seemed to feel that one of his most important paintings is an oil called The
Nutmeg Princess. It is a full-length portrait of Jennifer Hosten,
who was named Miss World in 1970. In the painting, she wears a
magnificent gown of nutmegs, Grenada’s primary export. (We later saw and
photographed the painting; it hangs in the lobby of the Spice Island Beach
Resort on Grand Anse Beach.)
Of John’s available paintings, I especially liked Dancers 1. The
power behind the man’s asymmetrical eyes and the woman’s energy grabbed
me. Rebecca preferred Dancers 2, which was about half done when we
first saw it on John’s easel.
That evening, we joined John for dinner at a local restaurant. He told us
about his experiences during the hurricane of 1954, and he spoke of the bombing
of the planes on the ground at the Grenville airport during the U.S. invasion
of Grenada in 1983. He offered to finish Dancers 2 for Rebecca
over the next few days, and to deliver both paintings to us in St. George’s
when we returned there. We agreed to that arrangement.
The following day—to spare us the adventure of a Grenadian minibus ride—John
drove us up to Morne Fendue Plantation House, the guest house we were to stay
at near Sauteurs. After we deposited our luggage there, he took us to
nearby Bathway Beach. Several days later, as promised, he brought our two
new watercolors to us in St. George’s. In the meantime, we also bought a
copy of the locally published Grenada Spice Isle Homemakers Cookbook,
for which John had done the cover illustration. He inscribed that book
for us.
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