Featured in The Blue Mountain Review · April 2024

Shallon
Fadlien

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Artist Statement

On what colour remembers.

I was born and raised in Saint Lucia. The sea was a verb there, and the light behaved like an opinion — generous, insistent, never the same. I came to Canada as an adult, studied at OCAD, and now keep a studio in Oshawa, Ontario. The colour that left with me is what most of my work is still about.

I paint in acrylic, draw in ink, work in mixed media, and have been widening into digital the last few years. My figures are often women, sometimes androgynous, unified by a string instrument or by the body of a child. Carnival, the flower festivals of La Rose and La Maguerite, Creole stories my grandmothers kept alive — these are the rooms the work walks out of.

I am not interested in painting things exactly as they are. I want the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual parts of a person to sit in the same frame.

— Shallon

Biography

A slow curriculum.

2026

"Life in Colour" — group exhibition

Audi Showroom (Choc) and Orange Grove Plaza (Bois D'Orange), Saint Lucia. April 27 – May 16, with Alwyn St. Omer, Nancy Cole, John Phulchere, and Cecil Fevrier.

2026

Art and the City — expanded edition

Citywide programme expanding across Saint Lucia, bringing artwork into public and commercial spaces around the island.

2024

Feature — The Blue Mountain Review

Interview and full artist feature in Issue 31, April 2024. Cover image and conversation on colour, Caribbean memory, and the Symphony Series.

2024

Interview — Calabash

In conversation with Saint Lucian poet John Robert Lee about the long arc of her practice.

2017

Feature — Connotation Press

Poetry and art feature pairing her drawings with written work.

2016

Symphony Series debut

Saint Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival, Arts Village. Each painting in the series depicts a man and a woman unified by a string instrument.

2016

Song & Symphony — book

Published by Mahanaim Publishing with poet John Robert Lee. Her paintings paired with poems written in response.

2016

Sketches and Canticles of Lent

Illustrations published in The Missing Slate, with John Robert Lee's poetry written after the drawings.

BFA

OCAD University — Toronto

Bachelor of Fine Arts, completed after earlier studies in Saint Lucia.

1999

First solo exhibition

Alliance Française de Sainte Lucie. Ink drawings and paintings — the first public showing of her work.

In the studio

A slow hand on the canvas.

Raw canvas being stretched over a wooden frame on a studio floor — 01Stretching canvas — surface prepared before paint.

Early under-painting of two figures blocked in on canvas — 02Blocking the figures — bodies found first.

Brush laying down a luminous blue glaze on a painted canvas surface — 03Glazing in Caribbean blues — layer on layer.

Fine ink pen detailing a dense pattern field on paper — 04Inking pattern fields — line by patient line.

Curriculum Vitæ

Education, exhibitions, press.

A working document of the public life of the practice. Expand each section to read the entries, or download the full CV as a PDF for archive and press use.

CompletedBFA, Bachelor of Fine ArtsOCAD University, Toronto

EarlierFoundational studies in visual artSaint Lucia

1999First solo exhibition — ink drawings and paintingsAlliance Française de Sainte Lucie

—Additional solo engagements available on request.

2026"Life in Colour" — with Alwyn St. Omer, Nancy Cole, John Phulchere, Cecil FevrierAudi Showroom & Orange Grove Plaza, Saint Lucia

2026Art and the City — expanded editionAcross Saint Lucia

2016Symphony Series debutSaint Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival, Arts Village

2016Song & Symphony — paintings paired with poetry by John Robert LeeMahanaim Publishing

2016Sketches and Canticles of Lent — drawings, poems by John Robert LeeThe Missing Slate

Apr 2024The Blue Mountain Review — interview and artist featureIssue 31

2024Calabash — in conversation with John Robert LeeInterview

2017St. Lucia Star — profileFeature