Symphony I (Cello)

Symphony I (Cello) is the first painting in the Symphony Series — the one that started a body of work I have been returning to since 2016. A man and a woman, their bodies wound into the shape of a cello: chest, neck, scroll. They are not holding the instrument so much as being held by it. The cello is the third figure.

I painted it in acrylic, thin layer over thin layer, because I wanted the colour to feel like skin lit from inside. The palette is Saint Lucian — the indigo of sea in blue hour, the ochre of a Castries rooftop, a rose that is not quite sunset and not quite blood. Colour has traditionally been a dominant part of our lives, and all of this nostalgia influences how I perceive colour and my choice of palette.

The painting debuted at the Saint Lucia Jazz and Arts Festival Arts Village in 2016. Soon after, poet John Robert Lee saw the series and began writing poems in response. What followed was Song & Symphony, published by Mahanaim Publishing the same year. Symphony I is the anchor image of that collaboration.