Fishing Scene with Cargo Ship
This scene is notable for the obvious intrusion of modernity — specifically the industrial container ship lying at anchor. While George Town’s cargo port, with its prominent crane and stacks of containers, is absent from the scene, Sibley has chosen to contrast the small tin fishing boat, wooden skiff, and fishermen bundling their nets in the foreground with the tug and cargo ship in the distance — pointing to the broader transformation of Cayman from a maritime-based economy to a globally connected society rooted in tourism and offshore financial services.
About the Artist
Joanne Sibley
b. 1930
Joanne Sibley arrived in the Cayman Islands from Canada in 1980 after living in Jamaica, where she had established herself as a successful artist. An interior designer by trade, Sibley has a signature style highly influenced by her formal training in architectural rendering. She has become one of the Islands’ most prolific and recognisable artists and was awarded the 1995 Creativity Prize by CNCF. Her work is featured in Art of the Cayman Islands, the Islands’ first formal art history (Scala Fine Art Publishers Ltd.: Fall 2016). NGCI exhibitions include the solo show Watermarks (2005), Faces and Figures (2007), Our Story of Art (2013), Metamorphoses (2014), All Access (2015), A Legacy of Light (2016), Mediating Self (2017), Tropical Visions (2019), Seascapes: Maritime Art from the National Collection in Little Cayman (2020) at the Little Cayman Museum, Saltwater in Their Veins (2020) and The People’s Collection: A 25-Year Cultural Legacy (2022).
