Peter Doig - What brought me to this place

Where I see my future - The tender-hearted post-card painter

Since his Artist residency in 2000, the Scottish painter, Peter Doig has made the island of Trinidad his home. Mr. Doig is a simple man who likes the pleasures of the ordinary which Trinidad and Tobago brings. Eating a Roti, going down the islands or just off to Las Cuevas to surf. But also, he is working by observing and studying compositions that would later be transformed into paintings.

Mr. Doig's paintings are quaint, leisurely and soothing to the eye. They are also fairly large. The pieces are uncluttered but rather complex at the sametime. The palette is cool and soft as if a polarizing filter is used to reduce the harshness of Trinidad's tropical glare. What we can be induced from his work, is that overlapping puzzle shapes conform to make up the composition. It is as if you were peeping through a refractive lens. In all, it is in the manner in which the subjects are portrayed which captures the gentleness of the painter's heart.

Trinidad has brought a safe haven to a painter known internationally in Art circles. Mr. Doig is very aware of this status and is able to separate the aspects of the business, to his influence on local artists. To gravitate towards him perhaps may sprinkle a bit of luck. But he shows restrain over the pushy ones. Success has its drawbacks. But more importantly, it is the role in which Trinidad and Tobago will be indebted to, by his spectrum of the people, culture and landmarks that reflect every aspect of this idyllic paradise.

Where Peter Doig goes from here depends on the subject. He may simply run out of things to paint (Trinidad wise) and take to the sea, to explore caves, coves and reefs which the island of Tobago has to offer.

Image above: The Lapeyrouse cemetery wall, Trinidad West Indies. Lapeyrouse Wall, oil on canvas, 200 x 250.cm, 2004. Collection of the MOMA, New York See Lapeyrouse cemetery

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