FIVE years after settling into its sprawling new home on the grounds of the Jamaica Horticultural Society at Hope Botanical Gardens in St Andrew, the annual Association of Jamaican Potters (AJP) Art & Craft Fair continues to prove why it is one of the most popular shows of its kind among artists, authentic art collectors, and anyone with an eye for fine Jamaican craftmanship.

The two-day show, which features Jamaican-produced ceramics, paintings, sculptures, wood crafts, plants and jewellery among other items, had yet another impressive showing last weekend, leaving patrons and organisers in awe.

“It improves every year. Last year, we had so many people come in. So far, today, we’ve had over 500 vehicles come in for the show. We’ve really done better at this location,” shared AJP President Allison Sinclair, as she wrapped up sales of one of her African-inspired, gold-finish ceramic faces with first-time showgoer and artist Gavin Jordan on Sunday.

Popularly known as the Potters’ Fair, the show spent the first two years at Villa Ronai before calling the character-filled Forestry Department home in 1998. In 2018 it moved to its current location after outgrowing the Forestry space.

This year, the popular event, which fell off the calendar in 2020 after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic a year earlier, attracted just over 80 established and up-and-coming artists and artisans.

Portraiture artist Richard Smith, who was having a “good” show on his first Potter’s Fair outing, said the highlight of both days was the comments from persons, who were “very impressed and surprised to see themselves on paper” after he had completed their portrait.

The 23-year-old said: “A number of persons also commented about the final finishes” on his lantern and the sweet pepper pieces, noting they could “make the connection with how they grow up”, a feat Smith said he had set out to achieve.

Others who were not able to sit for the 35-minute portrait, left photographs with Smith and his fellow portraiture artist, 26-year-old Winroy Messam, to complete after the show.

With plenty to see, loyal patrons turned out in their numbers to snatch wares from their favourite artisans.

“I’m absolutely blown away by Devon’s [work] …I’d love to take this,” Joan Young-Davis, a Potters’ Fair loyal, said as she pointed to one of the artist’s imposing nearby vases.

It was a similar reaction from Mellishia Coke, whose exquisite hand-crafted jewellery wowed regulars, friends Sherry-Ann McGregor and Delmarie Morgan. “I just love people telling me that they came to see me,” said a delighted Coke.

Husband and wife, Mboosha Dennis and Aretha Facey-Dennis, were just as pleased to share their quirky leaf-inspired spoon holders and spoon sets with repeat buyer and well-known art collector Prof Carolyn Cooper.

Proceeds from the fair will go toward the APJ’s bursary programmes, which finances the education of a final-year ceramics student at the Edna Manley College of The Visual & Performing Arts each year.

Potter’s Fair is the longest-running art and craft fair in the English-speaking Caribbean. All the artisans on the show are Jamaicans. This year the show featured a number of longstanding exhibitors and notable Jamaican talents, among them photographer, portraiture and graphic artist Howard Moo Young; painter Paul Blackwood; realism painter Alphanso Blake, and painter Lennox Coke.

Ceramicist Devon Townsend, painter Crislyn Beecher-Bravo, Portland native Mark Bell along with Smith, Messam and Coke, are just a handful of the young talents that wowed this year’s staging.