Painter displays over a decade of art

In the growing art scenes, a Belizean artist gets a spot in the limelight to showcase about a hundred pieces of art. Showing at the Bliss is the work of Kent Meggs, an Orange Walk-born artist who boasts a painting career of over fifty years. Meggs is a graduate of St. Michael’s College and has also worked as a policeman. While he has had an expansive career in art, the display at the Bliss features works that have been created over the past eleven years. Meggs currently resides in San Ignacio, Cayo, where he continues to paint his favourite subjects.

Kent Meggs, Painter
“The first exhibit I did at the Belisle Institute was on December of 1996. Since then I’ve been away and I’ve been coming to Belize off and on gathering subjects and painting, and when I looked around I saw that everything in Belize was a little bit on the right track. I came up to the Bliss and I saw the improvement that was made to the building and I decided this is the time.”

Gavin Courtenay
“When you’re painting, what are some of the certain things, the specific things, that inspire you?”

Kent Meggs
“Well mostly landscapes. We have very beautiful landscapes around here, and I was forced to capture it.”

Gavin Courtenay
“Is this exhibit maybe the largest or the first of its kind that you’ve done?”

Kent Meggs
“Yeah, this is the largest that I’ve done. This one is carrying a hundred pieces. The first one was about fifty-two pieces, and this one covers not only landscaping, but seascape and some abstract.”

Gavin Courtenay
“When you paint, what is it that you maybe want people to see or feel when they look at your work?”

Kent Meggs
“Well, the beauty of Belize; that’s the first thing, then my feeling towards it. I’m a person if you look at most of my paintings, you’ll see that it’s close to nature. The greens, I try to make everything as close to what I’m seeing. I’m hoping that I can get people to understand this is what is happening around. This is what they can come out and see at any given time. These are all natural things.”

Gavin Courtenay
“I notice that you use a wide array of colours. What style of painting is your preferred style?”

Kent Meggs
“Like I said, landscaping, because that—in nature you see all different colours and landscaping will push the colours out. It’s up to you, either the painter or the artist, to capture it.”

Meggs’ exhibit will be on display throughout the rest of the month at the Bliss Institute, ending on the thirtieth of June.