GINA W/ GOLD HALO

This oil on wood painting entitled "Gina with Gold Halo" was created by Johnathan Guy Gladding (JAG) and acquired from the Gallery of Caribbean Art in Speightstown, Barbados in 2024.

In November 2005, JAG won 'Best in America 2005' Show, National Association of Oil and Acrylic Painters Society Bolivar, Missouri. Four months prior to that he received first place in July 2005 New England Exhibition Cape Cod Art Association Barnstable, Massachusetts.

An adopted son to St. Lucia, Gladding's home is in a small culturally rich southern village where he initially served as a Peace Corp volunteer woodwork instructor at a village primary school from 1999. It was there that JAG found true artistic inspiration. An unending supply of rich subject matter all illuminate by a quality of light he had never experienced. Abandoning his cubist style of painting, he started to work in realism. JAG felt it was best suited to communicate and paint the feelings and ideas that he wants to share.

It is JAG's desire to tell a story in detail whether it is about warmth and spirit of the Caribbean or something simple as the way in which the reflected light colours the edge of a child's face. He also finds inspiration in the work of old masters like Jan Vermeer. In January 2003, Johnathan was chosen as the artist of the month by the Artists' Magazine, the world's leading magazine for serious active artists with a circulation of 200,000. Art to Johnathan is an opportunity to record and communicate the human experience.