Local artist showcases African American history and culture

Bernadette Cali Leland presenter for DI Library’s Black History Month series

In honor of Black History month in February, the Daniel Island Library hosted a series of presentations focusing on the important history and culture of the African American community in the Lowcountry.

The final program in the series, presented by Wadmalaw Island resident and artist Bernadette Cali Leland on February 23, showcased a collection of vivid watercolor paintings that depict various scenes on Wadmalaw Island that captivated Leland when she moved to the island in the mid-1970s. Her paintings, together with her own personal anecdotal stories behind them, reflect moments of a simpler, slower life in the Lowcountry that she believes is quickly fading from view.

Leland grew up in a creative, talented home in rural New Jersey, raised by a sculptor (her father) and an opera singer (her mother). In her early 20’s, Leland travelled to West Africa and fell in love with the lush, humid green tree-filled land and the warm, welcoming people of Ghana and Sierra Leone. When Leland moved to Wadmalaw Island just a few years later, she was thrilled to realize just how much the island’s lush foliage, the marsh, the sea air and the hospitality of her neighbors reminded her of West Africa. Only many years later would she come to understand that the similarities she intuited were in fact based on an actual historical connection between the two lands.

In the mid-1970s, Wadmalaw Island was essentially untouched by modern development. “I could ride my horse down the side of the road and never see a car,” Leland recalls. Then, as now, there were no movie theatres or supermarkets anywhere on the island. “What is now the post-office used to be a general store where you could buy everything from underwear to penny candy,” she continues. Only a few churches and the quaint little houses that her neighbors had been calling “home” for generations, counted among the buildings she was soon to begin painting.

Leland recalls that her neighbors, all African-American, spoke Gullah; today a nearly forgotten language that grew up among slave communities in the Lowcountry. Leland describes her neighbors on Wadmalaw: “They were a happy, church-going people with the values of home, family and spirituality. They had a casual, easy-going lifestyle, sitting on the porch every day, talking to each other for hours, sharing family stories, waiting for freshly washed sheets on the clothesline to dry in the salty sea breezes.”

While the artist admits that she used to sketch often as a child, today she prefers to simply begin every painting with the paint. Leland points out, “I start out with an idea in mind. Of course, the final painting never turns out the way I imagine it will, but I abandon myself to the process. I used to feel frustrated, but, these days, my approach is more of a ‘let’s see what it turns out to be.’ In art, as in life, you make mistakes and you learn from them.”

While she dabbles occasionally in acrylic, Leland prefers to work in watercolor, with wide brush strokes on heavy, fibrous paper stock. While most watercolor paintings tend to be light, clear and fresh, she observes, her own paintings take on a more solid three-dimensional appearance. “I tend to push and pull with the colors to achieve what I want to express in the painting.”

The Wadmalaw Island resident admits that, while her paintings are essentially representational - featuring houses, churches, neighbors sitting on their porch, her style is more abstract. “My goal,” she points out, “is always to paint what I’m feeling about the subject. It’s more about the interpretation of what I’m seeing. I’m more interested in the composition and the interplay of light and color.”

In addition to capturing scenes from the Gullah community in her neighborhood, Leland has painted scenes from Rockville, a municipality on the coastal south end of the island. She’s also turned her eye - and brush - to local scenes outside Wadmalaw as well as the colorful tropical undersea worlds.

Daniel Island resident Jacqueline Gowe, whose home is the subject of one of Leland’s paintings, best sums up the artist’s talent: “I love Bernadette’s work because she captures a place in time that is slowly disappearing. Her art tells a story of neighbors and friends. Yet, even though there is a dreamy quality to her watercolors, they are not simply ‘feel-good’ pastels. Bern’s art makes me want to visit and know more about the people and places of Wadmalaw Island. I’m so happy with my original ‘Cali.’ It really is a sweet painting of our home!”

For more information, please go to caliarts.com.

Daniel Island Publishing

225 Seven Farms Drive
Unit 108
Daniel Island, SC 29492 

Office Number: 843-856-1999
Fax Number: 843-856-8555

 

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