My wife Lynne and I just returned from Antigua, West Indies. The Caribbean island is said to have 365 beaches i.e. "a beach for every day of the year" and although we did not attempt to count, Antigua certainly lived up to it's advance billing. Always on the lookout for a "secret beach", it was exhilarating to view an empty and undeveloped stretch of sand from the jet window as we approached Antigua's airport only to seek it out early in the trip to find it truly deserted and as beautiful as it looked from the air.

During our visit, we combined a lot of rest and relaxation with a little bit of "work." Maybe the most exhausting part of the "work" aspect of the trip was our attempts to navigate Antigua's un-marked "highway" system. One afternoon's journey had us driving to the far Eastern side of the Island to visit the art gallery at Harmony Hall. The trip had Lynne reminiscing of the fields of Southern Ohio while hunger had me dreaming of barbecue goat! More than any Island we have seen to date, Antigua's goat population was by far the greatest…if you have a taste for goat, you would never need to go hungry! Other than seeing "curried goat" handwritten on a menu of a restaurant in one of the neighborhoods of St John's (clearly a spot for the locals), it is surprising how absent anything goat is from the mainstream tourist trade…although Lynne did comment that her cheeseburger had a unique flavor to it!

Our hat is off to the group that currently owns and operates Harmony Hall…a quaint and remote hotel/art gallery seemingly located in the middle of nowhere (just the kind of place we love!) On display in the gallery are paintings, sculptures, pottery, wooden boats and other objects of art by artists living and working throughout the Caribbean region. To name a few, on display at the time of our visit were creations from Frederica Zecca, Patrick Chvailler, Graham Davis, P. Looby, Sallie Harker, Gene Pearson, Bruce and Hasani Williamson, William Ferries, and Heather Doram.

Particularly catching our eye were the works on display by Cecil Cooper. To Lynne and I, his expressionist style appears to be almost mystical in nature. The Jamaican born artist/musician/educator studied art in both Jamaica and the United States and currently lives, educates and practices the arts near Kingston, Jamaica (you can read more about Cecil Cooper at LINK TO WEB PAGE.)

Although we have no immediate plans for our next journey, certainly our travels will continue as our galleries grow. Feel free to visit Palmtree Galleries again and again to ride along with us and view our featured artists. Also, please e-mail us if there is a certain artisan, craftsman, etc. that you may have come across during one of your own trips to some less traveled corner of the globe…discovering and featuring new talent is what we are all about. Think Sun, Sand and Sea!!!!

See you soon!

Paul Dupnock
PalmTree Galleries