The artistic St. Omer clan continues to keep great art pulling at our heartstrings. And no shade of colours seemed missing from their palettes this week when they ran their “Legacy” exhibition at the Alliance Francaise Pyramid at Pointe Seraphine.
The exhibition opened on Tuesday and ended yesterday. It featured 30 new works of art by Sir Dunstan’s two eldest sons, Alwyn and Luigi, and his daughter-in-law, Marcella, who specializes in crochet dressmaking.
Alwyn told The VOICE the exhibition was a tribute to his late father, who passed last May. The timing of the exhibition, he said, was also strategic.
“Christmas was his favourite time of year when the entire family would come together,” Alwyn said Thursday. “This year, we will miss him. Nevertheless, we wanted to end the year by doing something for him, especially during his favourite time.”
Alwyn said the exhibition was dubbed “Legacy” because their work “is a kind of continuum” for the work started by the late painter. The long-term objective of “Legacy” is to show that Sir Dunstan’s legacy survives not just through his children but also through the many students and friends that he influenced.
Alwyn said he’s currently delving into surrealism as far as his work is concerned, while Luigi has gone fully Post-Impressionism and “completely done away with conventions.” The St. Omer art clan, he said, will continue to brush up on their skills.
“There’s a secret in even my more so-called classical-style paintings,” Alwyn explained. “There’s something just waiting to happen, so maybe my next series might be an experiment in surrealism.”
Alwyn said Sir Dunstan was always their harshest critic because even completed paintings were never really finished to him but were rather works in progress. Despite that, those who visited the four-day exhibition seemed content with what they saw.
“The patrons who came to the exhibition have been very pleased. For many of them, it’s an awakening because there’s a kind of freshness about it,” Alwyn stated.
Paintings in the “Legacy” exhibition range in price between $300 and $5,000. However, prints are also available at more affordable rates. Prices, Alwyn said, are being kept at a minimum so that his father and Derek Walcott’s common dream of having a painting hung in every Saint Lucian home before they died comes true.
Luigi’s new collection, “The Crossing”, paid tribute to the sights and sounds of the sea. The painter said the objective was to paint a total picture of the scenes one would encounter on their way to Saint Lucia.
Alwyn’s wife, Marcella, also known as The Crochet Goddess, from the House of St. Omer, a company through which their works are marketed, said the exhibition began on a fashionable note on Tuesday. Five designers’ works were featured at the opening which included a fashion show, with fashion lines from Thelma William, Rafferty Intimates and Maradona Nicholas. Marcella’s crochet dresses were also featured at the art exhibition.
