dominiqueholmes

[dominiqueholmes]

Soon to become ginger beer.

[dominiqueholmes]

Making the most of the weekend lockdowns here in Jamaica by spending time with the orchids blooming under the pear tree. In progress.

#oilpainting #en plein air #allaprima #landscapepainting #paintingprocess #wip

[dominiqueholmes]

I had the joy and honour of illustrating the latest collection of interviews, Poets at Work, by The Paris Review. Available now!

#the paris review #drawing #illustration #inkdrawing #bookillustration #marianne moore #allen ginsberg #elizabeth bishop #yehuda amichai #derek walcott #frank bidart #ishmael reed #ezra pound

[dominiqueholmes]

Found an abundance of jumbie beads on my morning walk! A small landslide had brought the floor of the jungle onto the road, and there they were, scattered about like brilliant red gems. The last time I collected jumbies was in Trinidad as a child. They are a mysterious gift from the jungle — I never knew what the plant looked like until we found the seed pods hidden amonges the trees a few days ago. I’m taking this discovery as a good omen. After all, jumbies are said to ward off evil spirits.

#jumbies #johncrowbeads #obeah #Caribbean #West Indies #Jamaica #Trinidad and Tobago

[dominiqueholmes]

Figs on The Olympia Reader.

#wip #sketch #oilpainting #oilsketch #zornpalette #limitedpalette #shadowbox #still life

[dominiqueholmes]

One week by the sea.

#illustration #drawing #inkdrawing #sketchbook #sketch #figurepainting #caribbeanArtist

[dominiqueholmes]

Throwback to the time I tried to paint Beans. He grew up before I could finish it.

#oilpainting #zornpalette #anderszorn #petportrait #blackcats #paintfromlife #quarantineadoption #quarantineart

[dominiqueholmes]

There’s an interview in which a journalist asks Robert Nesta Marley if he is a rich man. Bob Marley asks for clarification — “When you say ‘rich,’ what do you mean?” The journalist responds with, “Do you have a lot of possessions, a lot of money in the bank?” Bob asks, “Possessions make you rich? I don’t have that type of richness. My richness is life, forever.”

#drawing #illustration #sketch #inkdrawing #sketchbook #childrensillustration #childrensbooks #bookillustration #penandink #procreate #bobmarley

[dominiqueholmes]

#tb to the letter H, drawn exactly 10 years ago. To look at it now feels a bit like looking at the work of another artist. I drew this while I was in Jamaica, yet my reference images were the cold, barren landscapes of faraway places to which I had never been. I was inspired by the way Dürer captured his world, not by the island I call home. Who was she, who believed the only way to make art was to imitate the old masters? Now I question the very idea of masters in art and wonder whether the distinction wasn’t just another way to diminish the achievements of artists who had the audacity to be true to themselves. Every now and then, I feel myself becoming cynical, angry, desperate to right a wrong that is impossible to right, embedded as it is in my DNA. I am constantly searching for guidance in the work of Kei Miller, Michelle Cliff, Marlon James, Nicole Dennis-Benn and other Jamaicans or people from the Caribbean who left home to pursue opportunities but who have always been tethered to their islands by a string around their hearts. For now, I have no answers, only questions and a desire to find clarity and direction. We have roots and we have ancestors. So what if we have to fib a little to tell their stories? It’s a tradition as old as time.

#drawing #illustration #sketch #inkdrawing #albrechtdurer #masterpainter

[dominiqueholmes]

Sunday morning hike to Debs Park to visit the turtles at this mysterious and magical pond at the top of the hill

[dominiqueholmes]

Everything they cannot see while John takes a zoom call.

[dominiqueholmes]

Franklin Canyon on the first clear blue sky day in Los Angeles since the summer fires.

[dominiqueholmes]

John watching Tiger King, Beans on Alpaca blanket and Fat Cat in bronze resin. I love painting people from life more than anything, and thanks to lockdown (and Tiger King) I had a cooperative sitter for a couple hours. Beans, our quarantine rescue, was not so cooperative and so the painting of him remains unfinished. I did take reference photos that I could easily use to complete the painting, but I find photos a little too flat and uninspiring (at least when taken with my iPad camera). The brilliant Jamaican sculptor Kay Sullivan very kindly cast my carving of the fat cat for me while I was in Jamaica over the Christmas holidays. I am very much looking forward to returning to her studio when next I return home.

[dominiqueholmes]

Beans explores the rose garden.

[dominiqueholmes]

A fearless warrior has entered our lives. His name is Beans.

#quarantineadoption

[dominiqueholmes]

Three men bathe in the LA River (inadviseable)

[dominiqueholmes]

Naps that feel like falling.

#drawing #illustration #sketch #procreate #digitalink