Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
lotte Amalie. Eventually, he became an accomplished painter, moved to Paris and changed
his name to Camille Pissarro. The Virgin Islands, particularly St Thomas Harbor, inspired
the painter. His tropical pastoral paintings feature a dreamy sense of line and sun-washed
colors. Because of his subjects and his interpretations, Pissarro gained recognition as one
of the founders of the French Impressionist movement.
Today quite a few artists work on the islands. Aragorn's Studio on Tortola hosts a col-
lective of potters, sculptors and coconut carvers. Tillett Gardens on St Thomas houses the
studios of superb printmakers, crafters and artists working in watercolors and oils. On St
Croix, Christiansted is chock-a-block with the galleries of contemporary painters, while the
woodworkers of the St Croix Leap project carve chunks of fallen mahogany trees deep in
rainforest.
Top Spots for Local Art
» Aragorn's Studio, Tortola
» Christiansted galleries, St Croix
» Camille Pissarro Gallery, St Thomas
» Tillett Gardens, St Thomas
» St Croix Leap, St Croix
Literature
While the Virgin Islands have been the setting for quite a few works of imaginative liter-
ature, no islanders have yet produced a blockbuster. But it might be just a matter of time.
The University of the Virgin Islands sponsors
The Caribbean Writer,
a journal of poems
and short fiction by major writers from throughout the Caribbean
.
The oral tradition of storytelling reaches all the way back to Africa and is still alive and
well in the Virgins. Cultural festivals on the islands often feature modern storytellers who
call children and the young at heart to the lawn under a shade tree for 'tim-tim time.' At
these gatherings, you are likely to hear stories about the adventures of Anansi de Trickster.
Anansi is the hero of the Bruh Nancy Tales, a series of West African folkloric stories that
also gave rise to the US slave stories of Uncle Remus and Br'er Rabbit, recorded by Joel
Chandler Harris.
