In these difficult economic times, a high-profile renovation project at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess is giving a boost to the arts

Artist and Warwick Academy teacher, Dan DeSilva, was one of several local artists chosen to provide work for the upgraded hotel on Pitts Bay Road in Pembroke.

Prints of two of Mr DeSilva’s paintings, Framed and Blue Shutter are to be found in suites in the Poinciana wing of the hotel.

When we visited construction workers were still hard at work getting everything ready for the Poinciana’s wings opening in the summer.

High end suites in the refurbished wing have been given historically significant names such as Deliverance Room and Patience Room after ships that carried the 1609 castaways to Jamestown, Virginia.

Rooms have been painted misty blue, which just happens to precisely match tones in Mr DeSilva’s Blue Shutter painting.

The decor in the new suites has done away with the traditional Bermuda tropical theme and instead goes for a modern contemporary look. Bermuda themed art work ties the theme together.

“I consider it a pretty big privilege to have my artwork on the walls of the Fairmont Hamilton Princess,” said Mr DeSilva. “These paintings are from my last art show, Glances, which was held at the Bermuda Society of Arts (BSOA) gallery at City Hall.

“The Fairmont Hamilton Princess put out a call for artists and available work. I submitted my available work and they chose these two paintings from that.

“They then made prints. My piece called Blue Shutter depicts a shutter on the Joy Lusher Real Estate building on Darrell’s Wharf.

“The show was called Glances, because I would ride around on my bike, glance at something interesting and then make a note to go back and take a photograph. Framed, was inspired by the work of Piet Mondrian who uses abstract lines and squares to create an image.

“I like taking Bermuda art and breaking it down into symbols. Most of my paintings are close cropped compositions. You don’t see the whole house, you just see sections.”

He said even his first art show, which depicted plants, was linear in nature.

“There was lots of plant shape in there, but it was also very linear at the same time through the veins and the patterns on the leaves,” he said. “I like playing with perspective and sight lines.”