Longtime St. John artist Deborah St. Clair has moved her work in a new direction.
“Right now I want to do more abstract,” she said.
St. Clair is now working on a series based on the journalistic who, what, where, when, why, and how. She prints out news headlines from the New York Times online, affixes it to the canvas and begins developing the work using a wax and pigment stick that can be heated and sculpted.
“It’s really tactile and organic,” she said of this medium.
St. Clair painted more classical artwork for many years, enjoying commercial success with her works. While her new works haven’t yet received significant monetary recognition due in part to the flagging economy, she now has the need to experiment with new materials and methods.
“I want to communicate an idea or an emotion through painting, but if I painted more palm trees, I would do allright,” she said, laughing.
St. Clair is working hard to avoid being in a rut when it comes to her art, which is why she’s willing to try new things.
Now 61, she said she’s reaching inside herself for inspiration rather than taking her cues from the island’s beauty as she previously did.
St. Clair was involved in art since she was a child.
“I always painted. It’s like a disease,” she said.
She was born in Massachusetts and grew up in Utah and Arizona. She arrived on St. John in 1978 when she came to visit her mother, former resident Gladys Hewitt.
“I hit the dock, and I knew it was where I belonged,” she said.
Like a lot of longtime St. John residents she did whatever it took to keep body and soul together. She worked at Caneel Bay Resort, commuted to St. Thomas for jobs in retail stores, and worked at St. John shops.
“But I was always painting, and I made it a priority 15 years ago,” she said.
Along the way she had her son, Cooper Penn, now 26. He is following his mother’s artistic leanings by pursuing a photography career in New York after graduating from Savannah College of Art and Design.
With retail jobs scarce thanks to the poor economy and the off-season, St. Clair has lots of time to devote to working in her home studio. She’s also an avid gardener, spending hours each day tending her vegetable garden and ornamental plants. She has lots of different plants growing, but her yams cover plenty of space. She’s also an expert on composting, and proudly showed off her system.
“I love yard work. It’s healthy and it’s exercise,” she said.
See St. Clair’s work at Bajo El Sol Gallery at Mongoose Junction Shopping Center.
