Cuba

Cuba 2004/5: paintings done in Cuba during a month-long stay over Christmas and New Year 2004, travelling around, but settling mainly in Santiago de Cuba where I was given a roof terrace as my studio. I'd taken NO materials with me, so much time was spent searching for paints (chinese imports in tiny tubes), brushes (childrens), calico from a department store fixed to a piece of borrowed hardboard and cooking oil as a thinner. All artists we met bemoaned the non-availability of paints. My 'Cuban diaries' formed the basis for many of the pieces I did when I returned home. Simon and I had a Cuban Exhibition in February 2005 which included my paintings done while there, paintings produced here from the diaries, paintings we'd bought there and the fabulous posters and prints that Simon had found during our travels there. My series was called 'If you ever wondered where all the Lycra clothes and hair rollers went...........they're in Santiago de Cuba'.  Fabulous curvacious expressive women.