“We produce or create things by thinking them as much as by any other means,” asserts Barry Watson. “It’s where the creative process begins.”

The outcomes of those various thoughts have placed Watson in the top echelons of Jamaican and Caribbean art, a career he decided on while still a teenager, hanging around his father’s drugstore and making greeting cards for sale to customers and people in the neighbourhood.

Almost inevitably, his passion for art took him beyond the shores of Jamaica and he departed for England after studying at Kingston College.

Initially, Watson studied at the London School of Printing and Graphic Art and then at the Royal College of Art before crossing the Channel to further his education in France, Holland, Italy and Spain. Upon returning to Jamaica from the continent in 1961, his first assignment was at the University of the West Indies where he taught art appreciation in the Department of Education.

Last night, Watson was honoured by the business community of St Thomas, where he has lived for the past 37 years. “I am certainly flattered and glad to be honoured, but I am not exactly sure what it is they honoured me for,” he told the Sunday Observer.

If that sounds like misplaced modesty, it may not be, for Watson’s accomplishments are indeed legion. He founded the Contemporary Jamaican Artists Association in 1964, Gallery Barrington in 1974, the Contemporary Art Centre in 1984, the Jamaica Art Foundation in 1985, the Orange Park Trust in 1991, and the Pan-Africanists Committee in 1998, to name but a few of his initiatives.

And his impact goes well beyond even those deeds. On his own behalf, Watson takes particular pride in the Jamaica Arts Foundation, which he spearheaded to provide a platform for Jamaican and Caribbean artistic expression. He might also point with pride, however, towards his tenure at the then Jamaica School of Art and Craft (he instigated the name change to Jamaica School of Art), where in 1962 he became the first director of studies. Watson also organised the diploma and certificate courses at the institution (now part of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts).

As to his long association with St Thomas, the Lucea-born Watson said: “It’s one of the most picturesque and visually intriguing parishes, from the scarred hillsides to the rivers and the lush valleys. It’s a place that had a tremendous input on my work and on me as a person.”

All the more reason why he’s pleased to see a considerable amount of development taking place in the parish in recent years, existing as it has in a sort of no man’s land between urban Kingston and St Andrew to the west and the rustic chic of Portland to the north. The famed painter sees Jamaican art in somewhat similar terms.

“I believe it’s extremely promising,” he argued. “We have the basic material here in terms of talent to have a worldwide impact. I’d just like to see us mature some more and provide more outlets for the exposure and development of that talent.”

Watson, who remains passionately concerned about encouraging future generations of artists, has also tried to teach through his book, Shades of Grey, which speaks of life through an artist’s eyes, and by imparting some of the techniques an artist uses to complete successful paintings.

The man who places much emphasis on thought has again been thinking a lot about the African Diaspora. The preoccupation is a natural outflow from his landmark series, the Pan-Africanists (which depicted important leaders of both continental Africa and the Diaspora).

It’s a further affirmation of his belief that the time is well nigh for African, Afro-American and – not least – Caribbean people to be accorded influence commensurate with their impact.

That is likely a part – indeed at the heart – of what drove last night’s presentation: acknowledging the profound significance, diverse initiative and obvious vitality of a man whose tremendous appetite for life and living well (and for his fellow men) has found expression in the vividly realistic depictions on the canvas.