Botanical Banter will probably be Cheryl Hastings’s last exhibit here (Photograph supplied)
The opening of Cheryl Hastings’s Masterworks exhibition, Botanical Banter, promises to be emotional.
It will probably be her last show on the island. After a decade in Bermuda, she and her family moved home to England in the summer.
“When we left in July, I was like, ‘See you later’,” she said. “I knew we would be back for this show. Now this is more of a real goodbye. It is expensive to travel to Bermuda.”
The art in Botanical Banter offers her trademark colourful quirkiness, with humanised cactuses and broody banana trees.
She set up an art space in her kitchen early on in 2020.
“I have two teenagers who would come in to eat,” she said. “Painting there, everyone would look at what I was doing and make a few comments, and encourage me. I enjoyed that part.”
During a walk she noticed an odd-looking cactus.
“It looked like a happy monster from a children’s story with waving arms and a funny face,” she said.
Convinced she could paint it, Ms Hastings started looking for other plants with sassy personalities.
“I started playing with putting them together so that you would have something like a cactus looking at a sunflower and making a connection,” she said.
Her interest moved to banana trees.
“One of them made me think of banshees, scary-looking monster kind of things coming to get you,” she said.
Her work has appeared in a number of shows since 2015, including last year’s Bermuda National Gallery Biennial and Masterworks’ 2021 Charman Prize. Her last solo exhibition was Cherylscapes at the Bermuda Arts Centre in Dockyard two years ago.
She is inspired by the work of Graham Sutherland, an artist known for his aggressive take on nature.
“I like that he found this different dynamic and possibly dangerous side to nature,” she said.
Ms Hastings has spent the past few months settling into her new home in Brighton, a seaside town in East Sussex.
A quirky cactus by Cheryl Hastings (Photograph supplied)
“Brighton is a fun and very arty town,” she said. “Pretty much every other person here is an artist. There is a big arts festival that happens in May. You can collect a map and visit people’s homes where they have art on display and maybe get a cup of tea.
“In December there is a burning of the clocks. Everyone makes lanterns and then there is a parade through town.”
Despite the creative opportunities, she misses her friends on the island, particularly those in the Bermuda Plein Air art group.
A banshee banana tree by Cheryl Hastings (Photograph supplied)
“They are a lovely, supportive group,” she said. “All of those artists have become good friends. Heidi Cowen does a very good job of leading that.”
She also misses the weather on the rock. When The Royal Gazette spoke with her on Friday, it was a wet and windy 58F in Brighton; although also wet here, the winds were a warm 78F.
Artist Cheryl Hastings in a banana tree (Photograph supplied)
Before moving to Bermuda, she taught in Botswana, Africa, and Britain.
“I was working with lots of children who just could not reach their full potential because there was too much going on for them in their lives.”
So she retrained as a play therapist.
“I was working with children individually using art and other mediums like puppets and sensory play narrative, play sound, play those things,” she said.
While here she taught art at the Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation. She is now looking for an art therapy job in Brighton.
She left all of her artwork with galleries here and has not been able to do much since moving to England.
“After four months our boxes have only just arrived,” she said. “I am still unpacking them.”
Because she is a play therapist by training, she wanted her art opening to have a fun element. The opening will include several flower and banana costumes for people to try on.
“I thought, wouldn’t it be great if I had a costume area for the show, so people may look around and connect with it,” Ms Hastings said. “There will be a lot of silliness.”
In keeping with the theme of the show, she will offer liqueur-soaked banana bites, a recipe from a friend, Sue Pearson, and prickly-pear jam by Doreen Williams-James.
“Brighton is known for its rock candy,” she added. “So I will have some of that available, with my label on it.”
• Botanical Banter opens at 5.30pm on Friday at Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art and runs until November 21. Follow Cheryl Hastings Art on Facebook and Instagram
