About Us

Welcome back to Cantave Studio. Where have you been Joseph? Glad you are back?..... We enjoy your writing so much, it doesn't matter what you write about. There is something unique about how you approach, enter, and explore a subject.

Well, thank you. I'm very happy to be back also. The site is finally awakening from a very long sleep. The fact of the matter is, I moved to southwest Florida more than two years ago. A lucrative job was already waiting for me there. The word lucrative is subjective here, I know people who make triple than what I make and know some people who make millions in a single year. Me, in my humble life never made six figure in a year. Well, this job that I have now, a blue-collar job at that pays me just that, but Im sacrificing a lot for that, I wonder at times if it's worth it. I Literally work more than 12 hours a day. I deliver fuel by driving a hazardous material truck to gas stations. From Tampa to Naples FL. and From Fort Lauderdale to Miami. Lifting hoses up to 90 pounds routinely.

     Now you know, but recently I had a series of eye opening events that are directing and corralling me to the site to write. For my birthday, last September I turn 60. Yes SIXTY. My ex-girlfriend Rochelle who has visited me every year since I moved, came with a message from the beyond. It was from her protege, Sherley Cantave who passed away years ago, my beloved 4 1/2. In that vision, Sherley asked asked if she read the book written by "Rony" me that is my nickname. She told Rochelle that she had to read it and before departed she said in her own words the book was " A real Tour de force". That was the message Rochelle had to give me. So now, this site has become a prelude to the book I always knew at one point I would have to write one.

 Another forceful event was an example set by a colleague, my dispatcher Vanessa Eller who befriended me a year ago after we found out we both had a passion for art. After she visited my website she told me she read and saw everything. She said that she knew there was something weird but attractive about me that she could not pinpoint and that I did fit the mold as truck driver.. When I told her that the job has completely taken over my life. She told me about her own life. She is married with 4 kids, she supports her unemployed husband and her mentally challenged mother and she also works 12 hours like me but she managed to paint every day. She told me when you love something you have to create time. Sometimes just minutes sometimes hours but one finds and uses time. She told me painting is what keeps her from going insane and painting is a link to a portal to the beyond she entered. She explained that she paints mostly mushrooms when I asked why, she told me once she had consumed psychedelic mushrooms and that experience changed her reality when I asked her to explain she told me she died and entered eternity, that hit a nerve with me. My own life experience is similar. We exchanged stories for hours. After viewing some of her work, I asked to buy one painting. She categorically refused. She never sold one painting. When I told her I got to have a painting from her, she posed and then promised me one for my birthday. On September 11th I received a large package and it was from her, I gently opened the package and was overwhelmed by the content. 

   Joseph, please tell us what was in the box.... Well it was the best work she had done so far in her whole life. Over 50 paintings.

        I'm not rich in financial terms but I cannot but recall Mr FAR's bag of goodies. Mr far is a billionaire from beyond living like a homeless beggar on Earth carrying a giant bag full of treasures. Mrs Vanessa Eller is in the tradition of Mr Far. I proudly give a page on my site.

  Another event was an auction I bidded on. It was a document hand written and signed by Toussaint Louverture. This document illustrated the complex environment 

Toussaint was maneuving in. The year was 1798, a pivotal time in the revolution where Toussaint seize total control of the French colony. The way he exercises power is truly fascinating. 

This document is concerning the French agent Hedrouville. The comissionaire was higher in authority then Toussaint. The  French gouvernmment was not capable at the time to send troops to establish French rule (white rule} so they send a number of commissions in order to curb Toussaint rise. The way and the manner which Toussaint foiled their plans and forced them out of the colony is stunning but most of all humorous and outrightcomical.

I will devote an essay about Toussaint and the French agents.

  And lastly, it is my own recurring dream. It is of me painting a portrait of Uncle George.  Uncle George was a Hugan (Voodoo priest) who was initiated by my Grandmother Nago and worked on her estate as a servant, he stayed on with my father until he died. I reunite with him in Saut D'eau. So I have to give an account regarding that trip to Saut D'eau with my sister.  Very interesting developments on the site.

 This picture of Joseph Cantave at 60 years old. 

 Joseph Cantave was born in Haiti on September 11, 1963. His work is popular in New England, where he currently

 resides and works. Joseph apprenticed with the popular Italian Painter Anthony Gillepsi from 1983 to 1985.

 (Gillepsi is now the chairman of the painting department at the Museum of Fine Art School in Boston) and as a 

result, he developed a technically sophisticated impressionistic style, blending pigments to create colors that 

are multidimensional. In his "Modern Series", using different color planes like in cubism he successfully robs

 flatness of its significance.  He chooses to work with oils, rather than the acrylics favored by many of the

 artists today. Definitely, Cantave's work reflects his rich Haitian historical heritage and his colorful 

background where a classic clash of civilizations occured and whre it is the only place and time in 

recorded history where the Africans have emerged on top.They ended slavery in 1791 and declared independance 

in 1804.

 His works are deeply rooted in African, Aboriginal Arakawa Indians and old French customs. In today's 

uncertain and unsecure  time, it is both refreshing

 and satisfying to contemplate Cantave's enchanting and spiritually based art. 

From the very beginning of Joseph's artistic pursuit, art has been a poetic statement

 in reaction to his experience of a Haitian life. The paintings are born of his own introspective journey 

spanning a life full of pain and tragedy as well as unbounded joy and beauty. He considers the act of painting

 a poetic statement in which he finds partial relief and peace from personal anguish in his turbulent life.

 Since his creativity compels him to explore different styles, Mr. Cantave's oeuvre is divided into three 

categories: Landscape Series little vacations to which the artist often escapes Nymphs Series a tribute to

 the golden ages past About Face Series the artist calls this visible spirits.

 At first glance one might have

 the impression that Joseph Cantave's work is naive, or primitive, but on lengthier examination, one supect

 that Mr Cantave possesses and utilizes a wealth of artistic visions. As he states, while his subject matter

 and the appearance might be naive, his approach to painting is from a higher degree of consciousness. 

In addition, he uses Chevreul's science and theories of color(simultaneous contrast)*.

He also uses negative and positive spaces.

 His work can be found in art galleries  as well as private collections all over

 the United States. In addition, his work is also in many private collections in Canada, the Dominican Republic,

 Germany, Hong Kong, England, France, Haiti, Italy, Panama, Puerto Rico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain,

 Switzerland, and Thailand. 

   Please note that the collectors bought directly from Joseph  between 1990 and 2008. Due to the financial

crisis he stopped painting from 2008 to become a long haul truck driver. In 2018 he started painting again.