Painting a new home - British artist hopes to make a name for himself in Jamaica

Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

Painter Gerard Hanson's exhibition, 'Jamaica Home From Home', which was cancelled in May due to the unrest in west Kingston, began last Thursday at the Revolution Gallery in St Andrew.

Twenty of Hanson's pieces - a combination of photography and painting techniques - will be shown at the exhibition which is scheduled to close November 11.

The mostly acrylic paintings depict life in two distinctly different locations close to Hanson's heart: New Roads, Westmoreland, where his father was born, and Bradford, a working-class city in Yorkshire, England.

The 39-year-old Hanson moved his wife and two children to Jamaica almost two years ago and has been busy trying to establish himself on the arts scene. He told The Sunday Gleaner that living here has made him more aware of his father's homeland.

More observant

"I can observe more and it has made a big difference to my work. It has definitely made it more Jamaican, less European," he explained.

Hanson's father, Cecil, was part of the mass Caribbean migration to Britain in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He settled in Bradford, married an Irish woman and they raised three children there.

Gerard Hanson's first exhibition in Jamaica took place in 2008. Dubbed 'Jamaica Was My Father's Home', it opened at the Devonshire in St Andrew and highlighted life in the community of New Roads.

Last month, Hanson won the 10th annual Mutual Gallery Under-40 Artist of the Year competition. He got the nod over fellow painters Tricia Gordon Johnston and Monique Lofters to take the Jury Prize and Public Prize.

Hanson said while the local arts scene is nowhere as big as it is at home in Britain, he believes Jamaican artistes are not far off, compared with their British counterparts, in terms of quality.

"I think art here is very vibrant. The last 16 months we have seen a lot of things that speak well for Jamaican art," he said.