Paintings of Trinidad

I love Chris Ofili. I appreciate his boyish fascination with elephant poo; he smuggled masses of it back in to the country from Africa and used it to mount and embellish his paintings, and even made one particular lump in to a self portrait, 'Shithead', which included old teeth and locks of his own hair. I also appreciate his humour, his bitter and brave play with black culture. When I saw No Woman, No Cry for the first time in the flesh it made me cry; partly because of the tragedy of Stephen Lawrence which it is a tribute to, but also because I had not expected the painting to be quite so big, or quite so overwhelmingly beautiful. I loved Chris Ofili because of, or despite all these things, but I love him even more now that he has spent a good long time maturing in the heat of Trinidad and emerged from night time jungle walks a painter. Because painters are a rare thing in the modern art world. Ofili proves his medium's validity with such torpidity and power.

The Raising of Lazarus, 2007

'I wonder if biblical was always a way to get to the spiritual, for me. When you live somewhere like this, you just become aware of different types of energy. The place itself has an undeniable energy. The force of nature is overwhelming.' Ofili on painting in Trinidad

The Healer, 2008

'I painted the first images of The Healer outdoors during a total lunar eclipse. He is born of the imagination sparked by forms in the clouds hovering over the hills at night. The figure of The Healer is a very dark character, black in fact, who feeds on the bright yellow of the sun.' Ofili

Habio Green Locks, 2009

'I've found that the night and twilight here enhances the imagination. In the city our relationship to the night is very particular because it's always illuminated, but here it's unlit, so you're relying on the light of the moon and sensitivity of the eyes. It's a different level of consciousness that is less familiar to me, and stimulating through a degree of fear and mystery.' Chris Ofili on painting in Trinidad

A final highlight from 2010

2010 was the year I started writing about Art. It has always been my dream to be a writer, although I often I doubt my capability. This year I discovered that in Art I can find an inspiration that appears to make my writing possible. This was an experiment in creative writing inspired by individual works of art after I went to see the amazing Tate Britain show about Chris Ofili. Ofili's old work made me cry, as I had studied it for so long but never had the chance to see it in the flesh. I needed a little more time with the new paintings as they were so different to what I knew.

1.1 Dance in Shadow

I am overwhelmed by the darkness; the darkness which swirls about me and sweeps around me in to oblivion. The lunar eclipse has extinguished all colour. There exists no memory of it, no trace in this waste land. How can I imagine, in this waste land?

‘Now the paintings talk, and I listen’ he says. I listen, I want to hear. Like holding a seashell to your ear; I soak up sunny colours like guava nectar and drink of that deep, deep, voidless blackness. Purple and yellow and orange in its dark, mysterious orbit. The colour lingers on. It lingers on but is swamped by palm fronds of darkness and absent trees that tower and sway above someone, somewhere.

Softly, for a moment, I believe it will take me there. Like light breaking through the sweeping rush of dark leaves as I sit and wait the colour begins creeping out. An orange-rind sunset-seeping of oil from between leafy fingers I hold up to the light, to see if my fingers will glow. I keep hearing English tunes and try to blot them out. I could have danced all night. I’ll be seeing you. Striking discordant with the steely rhythms of colour.

This is the closest I have ever come to Trinidad. Perhaps it is the closest I will ever be.

Have I forgotten the lovers? The lovers who dance in the mango glow. The lovers who dance in shadow.

They are everything; sweeping onto the canvas in a rush of black and waltzing out in the whispery traces of light. Feetless; as if dancing on midnight air. What dance have they strayed from? What cruel lights have chased them away?

And she; the smile that tangos across her lips is her only distinguishable feature. And he; touched by her purple-passion-fruit vibrancy would be otherwise lost in the dark. She draws him to her with that bright arm.

I wonder if he will kiss her? I stop looking, close my eyes and listen. The colour persists; a sketchy map on my eyelids. The imprint of her papaya tinged aura, which marks out her unclasped waist and the swooping bell of her skirt, shimmers before me. They are forbidden lips that wait and their dance is banished to leafy shadows.

Here, in this vegetative glade, in the pitch of night, I am the only intruder. They swirl and sweep, tracing the endless patterns of their dance. I witness all, but the secret is safe with me.

In the gallery shop I buy a postcard of my trip to Trinidad. I forget to buy a stamp.