Yermine Richardson Depicts Caribbean Culture Through His Artistry

Words by Yianina Small

Yermine Richardson is a Caribbean multidisciplinary artist creating artworks which encapsulate and honour Caribbean cultures and aesthetics. His artworks display traditional symbols and concepts relating to womanhood, spiritualism and cosmology. Yermine creates hand drawn illustrations on paper, giclée prints (fine art prints) and paintings using mixed media.

While perusing Yermine’s work, it soon becomes clear that his style is characterised by radiant colours on a black or very dark background. This particular theme was inspired by his childhood.

“When I was young there was no electricity at night where I grew up, so I used to watch the stars and play in the darkness. Because of this I am acutely sensitive and attracted to bright colours. I remember my mom wearing a lot of sparkling clothes when going out to dance. These works are a celebration of people finding light even in darkness”

Many of his works feature a person as the main subject, with circles, dots or shapes scattered in the background like colourful stars. Yermine rarely uses block colours but instead relies on lines, creative brush strokes and small intricate patterns to achieve great results when painting. This technique produces imagery that somewhat mirrors fireworks, tying into the idea of his work being a celebration of Caribbean cultures. His ability to use paint in various ways creates imagery that resembles different textures such as feathers, glitter and even sea life. The diverse shapes used make for very striking visuals.

Yermine’s artworks can be viewed on his Instagram page, @popcaribe