Overseas-based Guyanese artist C. Aubrey McWatt is moved by an earnest, creative response to the human experience
Aubrey McWatt’s work is influenced by a belief that the universe and everything in it, including nature, thought and emotion, are inherently connected. Aubrey’s response to the human condition is influenced by visits to more than 70 countries during an international business career of over 30 years.
The fine artist’s education includes general studies at Queen’s College, British Guiana and undergraduate studies in business, with a concentration in marketing at Columbia University, New York. His graduate education is from the Wharton School of Business in Executive Management and Finance. Aubrey also studied at the Seattle Academy of Fine Art and is fluent in Spanish and French.
He served on the boards of various art organizations, including the Seattle Academy of Fine Art and the Camano Arts Association. Additionally, he served as President of the Board of Trustees for a non-profit organization in Warrington, PA. Aubrey has lived and worked in England, North and South America and the Caribbean.
Aubreyhas taught art history and painting to both youths and adults and has presented his illustrated essays, including “The Artist’s Search for Reality”, “Art and Social Change” and “Postmodern Ideas on the Function of Art” to diverse groups in the U.S.A. and abroad.
The artist has organized and participated in various activities supporting the arts across the U.S. and Canada. He is also a poet and songwriter. His songs include “Where the Roses Grow” and “A Song of Life”. Aubrey produced and acted in the play “Love Letters” and co-wrote his first play “A Place by the River”. He also penned his first book, “Painting and Poetry – Creating Connections”.
“Early in life I experienced a freedom that came from the process of creating art, and from expressing an idea or emotion in a way that transcends traditional communication. My creative process is triggered by the stimulus of a visual experience, a concept, an idea that urges me to make an artistic response, or simply following the direction in which the medium leads. Much of my art reflects nature in one form or another, and sometimes tells a story of one of the aspects of the lifecycle of humankind.
“The art I create is influenced by the belief that all elements in existence, tangible and intangible, are interconnected in an essential manner. This influence manifests itself as a desire to capture the spirit within every object, animate or inanimate, that is portrayed in my drawings, paintings, and sculptures. The end product represents my interpretation of what the object ‘is’, not what it ‘appears to be’. My artistic goal is to reflect my inner reality, aesthetic relationships of form and color, and simplicity of composition. My continuing challenge is to harmonize these elements,” he said on his website www.mcwattfineart.net
Aubrey recognizes the artists who were foremost influences in his artistic development as a painter, such as ER (Ted) Burrowes, Vincent Van Gogh, Piet Mondrian and Charles Emerson, his mentor and professor in color theory and practice at the Seattle Academy of Fine Art. These influencers pointed the direction in which Aubrey’s own painting has flowed.
For more information on the artist, visit www.mcwattfineart.net (Guyana Times Sunday Magazine)
