Portrait of a painter in Rodrigues.
Let me introduce you to Dorelio Bernard, entrepeneur in Rodrigues. On top of being a charming young Rasta, he happens to be the local sign painter.
He’s also pretty passionate, and mostly self taught. Pretty cool, uh?
He resides in the central part of the island, where we found him preparing sets for a school fair, helped by two colleagues.
Dorelio tells us a bit more about how he started to work alone, quickly put up 2 teams together. Today, they share the different decorating, renovating and primer orders
for various signboards.
Dorelio makes the ultimate calls when it comes to perfecting and polishing the typography, though.
We were able to admire a sample of their work spread along the road.
The recent 2 years freelance deal Dorelio struck with a big mobile phone multinational company have them all working overtime. Indeed, they’re supposed to
paint the brand’s colors on as much as a hundred shop façades.
The young man’s talent is also very appreciated by small craftsmen throughout the island!
Be it for hairdressing...
Or hardware!
The overall style should suit the client’s needs.
After a lengthy conversation on some of the more technical aspects and variables of the profession, our rasta friend gives us directions to meet up with
one of his team working on a big order, near Anse Mourouk:
A double stack, future housing for a cooperative manufacturing plexiglass canoe hulls!
Those are small crafts in which one can observe the ocean beneath quite flawlessly. Some might disagree with the fishes staring at our bottoms, but other
than that it does seem like a neat idea, don’t you think?
Spot on!
Daris Anthony was kind enough to elaborate on their work and talk about this project: The main difficulty lies in the hull transparency. This particular bit
requires both imagination and great precision.
Jean-Paul Agathe is also helping with said canoe hull. A precious help for Daris.
They even ask me for a little help. My fingers show more paint than skin after the first fish. Their cheers help me focus, since I’m still a little shy: it’s been
a long time since I painted. Madagascar in fact!
The «expert» checks my work ;)
The discreet Mariano takes his time. Painstaking, he denies himself a well deserved break to finish a big shark.
We spot a fully painted wall below.
Heads filled with colors and brush strokes, we take our leave from this artistic vibe.
We would like to express our gratitude to my hard-working esteemed colleagues for the welcome and the stay. It was a fulfilling and enlightening experience!
Thanks to articles from the Express and Le Mauricien local newspapers, it came to our attention that Dorelio also used to be a famous professional guitar player,
and that besides mural painting, he also excels at embroidery and sculpture. He was also distinguished by the Mauritian governement for creating steady and secure jobs
in his company.
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