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My art is an extension of me

Brave new world: Che Caines and cousin Alicia Martinez were photographed at the opening of Che's recent exhibition at the Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art.

I have been painting since the age of three. I don't know how I started; I just remember as a child I used to always be interested in anything hands-on.

As I got older, I got more experienced and my talent blew up. By the age of 10, I was drawing detailed sketches of people and using various media such as drawing pencils, charcoal, watercolours and oil pastels.

I always enjoyed art class from a young age and always did very well in that field.

In CedarBridge Academy I scored the highest percentage in GCSE Art examination, which is marked in England.

My first art show was at Masterworks Art Gallery in Botanical Gardens on February 13, 2009. I displayed landscape art, portrait art, and abstract art. It was a joint show featuring me and Manuel Palacio, CedarBridge Art teacher and artist.

There were all sorts of positive comments, and some people said that they had nothing to say, they were just shocked and amazed at what they saw. The comments made me feel good.

I wasn't nervous about this show, but I was concerned about the number of people who might show up. In the end, it was a great turnout and I was very excited. There were over 200 people, at least. The Governor of Bermuda was there, lots of my teachers, family, friends, members of the news media, and just people who wanted to see my talent.

When I start painting, sometimes I get ideas from pictures, from the Internet, from experiences that I've had and from ideas in my head. I am self-taught. I do art because I like to do it and I do it well, so I stick with it.

My latest painting is called Pangea and it is the largest painting that I have done — 8 feet x 4 ½ feet. It's on the market for $15,000. In this painting, you're on a Bermuda beach and you can see the mountains of Alaska, showing that the continents are together. My smaller paintings are mostly landscapes of Bermuda and fantasy landscapes — really science fiction landscapes — beach surrounded by space.

I have sold two landscapes, to date.

Currently, I am painting theatre sets for the play The Railway Children, and I just finished parts of a set of the pantomime Christmas play. My future plans are to be a commercial architect and I plan to mix that with my art. I am also currently designing a house for the Belmont property in partnership with Cooper and Gardener Architecture.

If members of the public are interested in learning more, they can type in Che Caines under Google or www.ask.com to gain information about my art show and architectural or artistic skills, or they can contact me through CedarBridge Academy.

I will soon be posting videos of my painting in action on YouTube under 'time lapse oil paintings'.