A painter and a poet known as the mother of the Saint-Martin Arts, Ruby Bute recounts the story of the island and passes on her passion to visitors from around the world in her workshop located in Friar’s Bay.
Article initially published in September 2021 in Focus n°0
In the heart of the Friar’s bay district, in a property surrounding one of the oldest silk-cotton trees of the island, you can find the workshop of the woman known as the first lady of the Saint- Martin cultural arts. Every day, with her still sparkling eyes, she sets up her easel to lay her inspiration on the canvas.
Born in Aruba to parents from Saint-Martin, Ruby Bute came to settle on her parents’ land in 1976. Passionate about drawing and painting since the age of six, it is only a few years after starting her professional life that she decided to completely focus on her art. “I have worked for 10 years, then I took the risk of stopping everything. Actually I have never thought about doing anything else”, she confides to us; she has always been a free spirit. “I didn’t want to get stuck with the same job. For me, it was monotonous and boring.”
On March 6th, 1983, her works were exhibited for the first time in Sint Maarten. A date which thus marked the first exhibition of a female painter on the island. “I was a rarity,” she laughs today. Since then, the artist, whose work is recognized internationally, has regularly exhibited throughout the Caribbean, but also in the Netherlands.
During her career she has tried a number of techniques: watercolor, acrylic, oil painting, pastel, grisaille painting… She uses them however she likes to recount the Saint-Martin Culture. “I like simplicity. What I portray is us, people of Saint Martin,” she explains. Through vibrant and luminous paintings, Ruby Bute pays tribute to women, to nature, to daily life and local traditions, symbols of a great “cultural pride”.
But for her, painting is not the only way to depict Saint-Martin. Her first collection of poems, “Golden Voices of S’maatin”, was published in 1989 by House of Nehesi Publishers. This book, which pays tribute to a long Caribbean oral tradition, has just been reedited for the second time. In 1995, it was followed by a second collection entitled ”Floral Bouquets to the Daughters of Eve”.
SHARING AND TRANSMISSION
In her Friar’s Bay workshop, not a day goes by when Ruby Bute doesn’t take out her brushes and pencils. “My work is never done. It keeps me alive”, the great lady confides to us. But what makes her so keen to continue is also knowledge transmission. Since 2009, the Silk-Cotton Grove Art Gallery is a sharing and artistic development place where Ruby Bute welcomes both adults and children to pass on her love of art. “The schoolchildren come to see me. I beg them to be creative, particularly at this time”, the painter adds; she has been an Art teacher for many years. In addition to Ruby Bute’s work that you can discover on a permanent basis in her workshop boutique, there are also regularly organized local artists exhibitions and cultural events. For her achievements and her lifetime commitment in support of Culture, the mother of the Saint-Martin Arts was given an award by the Saint-Martin Collectivity in 2004, and she was decorated in 2005 by the Queen of the Netherlands Beatrix herself.
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