691. Curaçao’s Crowdsourced Painting

Aerial shot by Bea Moedt.

Hundreds of young and old yu di Kòrsou huddled together, paintbrush in hand, this past weekend to paint the longest canvas in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Caribbean, and by some accounts — the world — at 2 km (1.25 miles)!!! 

Painting in Progress.

The all-day / all-night creative initiative was organized by Curacao World Largest Painting Foundation, the brainchild of visual artist Ashley Mauricia, who’s committed to fostering Curaçao’s talent and nurturing creativity. Mauricia’s foundation managed to unite folks from all walks of life around a common goal as well as raise funds to re-open Curaçao’s Art Academy (which has been closed since 2003 due to public sector cost cutting) by inviting 35 international and domestic visual artists to donate 10 meters of canvas (each) to an auction. The theme of this year’s crowd-sourced canvas “Nature and I in Liberty” commemorates 150 years of abolition (July 1 2013). Much creativity was shared and much fun was had. “I’m honored to have been part of such a beautiful, historic event. I got to know some of the more experienced artists from Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, etc… they gave me a ton of ideas and inspiration. But then I also got to see the kids and adults so focused on their pieces — painting away in their own world, not caring about time or anything else — I was just blown away by the amazing artistic experience over the past 2 days!” said Curaçaoan visual artist Garrick Marchena.

Participating visual artists included —

Curaçao: Papy Adriana, Herman van Bergen, Didi Dometili, Marcel van Duijneveldt, Fonz Heijdens, Yubi Kirindongo, Wigberto Lopez, Pitopolo, Fifi Rademaker, Ced Ride, Babette de Waele, Philippe Zanolino, Garrick Marchena, Andre Nagtegaal.

Aruba: Elvis Lopez. Canada: Delgado Delhio. Dominican Republic: Aram Borman Musser Frias, Alejandro Antonio Cabral Cornero, Esau Gil Peña, Alexander Miranda Jimenez, Genaro Antonio Reyes Mercedes and Junior Reyes. Miami: Jack Berry. The Netherlands: Colourcastle.nl, Mike Freeke, Remko Koopman, Gustave Nouel, Kenneth Olbina, Hubert Verhulst and ZEDZ. Venezuela: Amilcar Alejo, Omar Borrero, Nicasio Duno, José Jimenez, Jhomar Loaira.

Below are some awesome photos courtesy of Natasha Chatlein, Elodie Heloise, Veroesjka de Windt, Garrick Marchena, Babette de Waele and Longestpainting Curacao. ENJOY!!!

Andre Nagtegaal.

Babette De Waele.

Babette De Waele.

Pedro de Aldrey.

Bianca Kelly.

Babette De Waele.

Garrick Marchena.