Among the displays at Festival Del Mar was a quite conspicuous booth which exhibited an array of paintings. The booth was manned by a practicing artist, Jermaine Fleming, an Anguillian Police Officer, attached to the Sandy Ground Marine Department of the Royal Anguilla Police Force.

Jermaine Fleming with artwork

“I have here some of my art collections,” he said, as he described each of his several paintings to The Anguillian. “This one of birds represents the Four Seasons of Love – spring, summer, autumn and winter. It depicts some of the different birds normally seen around in Anguilla during the seasons.
“Here is a sunset viewed from Sandy Ground with a number of yachts entering the harbour. I have another sunset painting which I call Reflections. I was inspired to do this while chilling out on the beach and thinking about what I have accomplished in life so far.

“I call this other painting The Tourist, representing the different lilies of the Caribbean, except the blue one which is not found in this region but in the northern hemisphere. I have here the butterfly, flying over a wheat meadow. I call this painting Far Away because this type of butterfly does not make its nest in that type of field, but in the trees instead. This other painting, Jamaican Pride, is a combination of the humming bird and the hibiscus, the national flower and the national bird of Jamaica.

“Over here, you have the remains of a traditional house in Anguilla which was burnt down. I saw it and decided to paint it. This other painting depicts the first Chief Minister of Anguilla, Mr. Ronald Webster, at an earlier age, and his great, great granddaughter – Natasha Webster,” he concluded describing his display of artwork.

“I started painting at the age of 11 in primary school,” he went on. “I later furthered my studies in high school where I did Art at CXC level and accomplished a Grade 1 mark. During my years in the Police Force, I became distracted from painting by other hobbies but I recently started painting again and here I am just trying to bounce back.”

Jermaine, who joined the Police Force in 1999, is the son of Ingrid Fleming of Island Harbour. “Joining the Force was a dream,” he added. “I am presently a member of the Marine Department where I am engaged in engineering and navigation. My dream is to make it as far as possible in this Department.” He probably has another dream: perhaps to become a successful commercial artist on the side, making a substantial amount of US dollars as the prices of his paintings indicated.

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