El’Roy Simmonds 53 Years A Master Artist’s Work

M.A. Dworkin

 St. Croix - There comes a time in everyone’s life when you have to stop, look back, and examine the path you have taken to get to your present state of being. For the average person, the look back could be a happy one, or it might not be so easy, involving painful memories, old photos, thoughts about what might have been. But for an artist, the process may be somewhat simpler. One major question might very well occupy their mind: What have I created in my years as an artist?

In the case of master artist El’Roy Simmonds, whose retrospective 53 Years recently opened at Cane Roots Art Gallery in Christiansted, he might find himself sifting through his personally adored masterpieces  and decide to present some of his finest works, for all the world to see, at Cane Roots, the innovative sanctuary for fine art  on St. Croix. After doing so, he may just sit back and listen very carefully as to what the public thinks of his time here on earth in his chosen profession, as an artist. 

He will most probably hear that El’Roy Simmonds is indeed an artist of rare talent and vision. He may hear that his art is acclaimed far and wide throughout the art worlds of New York, the Diaspora, Denmark and parts of Europe. As he listens across gallery spaces, he may find those that believe he is an artist who has time and again trampled on tradition, all the while pouring out his soul in order to present his subject matter with a range of heart-wrenching introspection. He may also hear that many find his talents to be spread across the borders of shocking innovation, all the way to the warm environs that hold the love of the personal and pastoral life.  

In his Stairs to the Sea, acrylic mixed media, Mr. Simmonds revisits his earlier successes, with his resoundingly successful “If Walls Could Talk” exhibition, which was a thank you to friends and family who had supported his journey in creating and sharing his art. Having worked in various professions over the years, as teacher, entrepreneur, musician and sculptor, he finally settled on his enduring love as a fine artist.

“In this new chapter of my career, I am recharged, reinvigorated and re-inspired to return to my first love and main passion - Art,” he stated, at the time when “If Walls Could Talk” opened as a retrospective at CMCArts in 2016. 

Mr. Simmonds In the Garden, acrylic, moves his vision of the feminine, squarely into the spheres of the electrifying beauty of women, the exotic locale of the tropics, and the wonders of mystery. A native woman sits proudly in a jungle-like setting, staring out at her world, leaning against an unknown object of stone that almost appears to be alive, as if she were trying to make a statement of both happiness and reflection in her life.

And yet, this multi-visionary artist shreds all thought of native beauty in the wilds with his Zulu Dread, acrylic mixed media, a portrait so terrifying that it defies description as to what this dark-eyed man must be thinking or planning. Could he jump out in a moment and slay everyone around, or does he see a vision of a world that has gone so wrong that it has no path to correction?

Red Comb #2 and Red Comb #3, acrylic and acrylic mixed media, sends us to the most sublime of scenes on the beach, the most glorious display of womanhood at ease, as they comb through their beautiful thick dark hair, as the calm waters roll in across the sands behind them.

And the Flamboyant Series, #1 thru #5, acrylic on canvas, displays the wild and vibrant use of color that has been the hallmark of Mr, Simmonds' career. Colors that smash you to your senses with the natural beauty of our God-given planet. Colors that cry out to you, yes, we are alive, and yes, it is all worth it!

The scene at Cane Roots Art Gallery, with its charming proprietor Sonia Nahar Deane, at the helm, standing by to guide her patrons through the opening night of 53 Years, with the smooth and classy sax music of Mekiel Reuben, and the thoughtful conversation of Crucian island gentility, seemed a bit out of place given the horrors of the world beyond. But as the Emcee loudly declared in the hit musical and movie Cabaret, “Outside the world is cold, outside it is dark…in here, life is beautiful!”

El' Roy Simmonds 53 Years, at Cane Roots Art Gallery, 24 Company Street , C'sted, Closes on June 19, 2026.. ph: 340-718-4929/423-2551