AFRIOM portraits

A series of portraits celebrating the heritage, culture and identity of Manx people with African heritage.

The paintings feature people who live in the Isle of Man who have African heritage and are passionate about their island home and contribute in many ways. The portraits are painted using the colours of Manx National Tartan (green – fields and valleys, light blue – sky, dark blue – sea, purple – heather, red – fuchsia, white – cottages and yellow – gorse) with shades altered to work best in the artworks. There are obvious and subtle visual references in each of the paintings, every pattern includes elements from the Isle of Man and the African country each person is connected with. The words in the paintings come from each of the islanders, include lines from the Manx National Anthem chosen specifically and reference the Isle of Man (IOM) and each African country.

These portraits were created as one of the #treisht2020 projects by Beth Louella.