COUNT DOWN!

Arriving back on-island is always an excitement but I wasn't expecting such a hive of activity after just 2 1/2 weeks away! What industry there is in every direction! This isn't any ordinary build-up to the summer high season, there is good reason for such hustle and bustle, Mustique is celebrating 50 years of the formation of the Mustique Company! - quite a mouthful!

The big party is on Saturday 21st July with a mega build-up the preceding week. I shall post soon about all the exciting events to come.

For now we are on day 17 of the Count Down.

I dropped by the Mustique Company office to meet Amanda Snow from Faro Creative. She designed the interior of the new Mustique Company Offices and very kindly offered to give me a guided tour. The Grand Opening will be part of the 50th Celebration, held on Thursday, 19th July at 10am.

From the outside it is a brighter version of the old Mustique Office and one could be forgiven for thinking it had just had a lick of new paint and a lot of landscaping. In fact I bumped into Roger Pritchard, Mustique's MD, who described it as the 'TARDIS' very aptly so, enter inside, and Wow! What a change! It is so spacious and cool and calm yet full of colour and character. In her own words Amanda describes:

'Coinciding with the 50th anniversary year, a new home for The Mustique Company was built on the site of the old offices, which had reached the end of their use.
I was commissioned to develop the interiors, source and select appropriate furniture and provide a colour scheme for the building.
During the discovery phase at the start of the project I was inspired by the spirit of the ‘60s and ‘70s, where fun and freedom took centre stage on Mustique. This influenced the emerging design scheme although I was careful only to acknowledge it rather than create an homage to that era.'

Mustique photos from the 60's and 70's during the heyday of Colin Tennant - Lord Glenconner - Prince of Mustique.

Paintings, posters and photos adorn the walls. To the right of Amanda is one of a pair of paintings commissioned for this very place in the entrance hall...

As part of the design scheme for the new Mustique Company offices, Tropicalia 1 and 2 we’re commissioned by Amanda Snow as site specific works. This is to say that they were not purchased from an existing portfolio, but instead were painted specifically for the foyer of the new building, in response to a brief.

Painted in early 2018, the pair of paintings depict a semi abstract assembly of local flora typically found on Mustique island. While individual plants may be painted in a realistic way, the overall composition is governed by more abstract principles, looking for balance, harmony and tension through colour, shape and contrast.

The paintings derive their titles from an artistic movement made popular in Brazil and across the Caribbean in the 1960s.

Tropicalia was an a avant garde movement that encouraged a type of cultural cannibalism - a conflation of disparate influences, out of which could be created something unique.

About the artist

Sean O’Halloran studied at Fine Art at Bristol from 1985-88 followed by a post graduate degree at The Royal Academy of Art.

www.paintingsbysean.com