Portrait of a blog

MY NEW EXHIBITION AT SUNDERLAND MUSEUM AND WINTER GARDENS – ONE DAY YOU’LL BE OLDER TOO 1ST FEBRUARY TO 6TH MAY

To coincide with the nationwide exhibition Leonardo Da Vinci – A Life In Drawing – (Drawings from The Royal Collection), I was approached by Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens to make a supporting exhibition using the medium of drawing. Most of the drawings are larger than life – A1 size studies – and some are drawn on hand mad paper made by myself.

Washington Lives – Because One Day You’ll Be Older Too

My initial conception came some years ago whilst reading Fannie Flagg’s novel “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle stop Café”. A simple story and not a literary classic, the novel tells the story of a woman who visits an old people’s residential home in Alabama and befriends an old lady there who shares her stories of exuberance and sadness while she was growing up and the “passing on” of these stories kept her and those people alive.

I visited three residential care homes who were all extremely welcoming and accommodating to me for which I am extremely grateful ; Washington Manor Care Home, Washington Lodge Care Home and St George’s Residential Care Home. I wanted it to be a very indigenous project and I focused specifically on the Washington area of Sunderland depicting the people who had lived in and defined the region.

I wanted to interpret the residents very much as individuals and depict them in the most intimate and sensitive way that I could. Texture of skin, bone structure, expression, mood, scars, hands, hair, eyes, clothes depicted in microscopic detail as we try to unravel that person’s identity and experience which is so ingrained within their face. The project has a sense of capturing the sitters before everything is lost and disappears with only traces of their existence left behind. Their memories, experience, stories, wisdom, opinions, thoughts and knowledge all of a sudden will vanish. The physical, the spiritual, the tangible and the intangible.

I also made a slow motion video of the residents sitting for me which explores and observes their features and physiognomy in a similar way to making drawings but also hints at their slowed down inner world of old age and dementia.

There is also another purpose to my project which is to address the way that we care for the elderly generation now and , in particular, in the future with an ever growing elderly population . It is a very real and important issue.

February 5th, 2019

New Exhibition / new work – Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens – 2019

In commemoration of 500 years since Leonardo Da Vinci’s death the Royal collection are mounting a nationwide exhibition in 12 venues, each exhibiting 12 of his drawings. One of the venues is Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens and they have invited me to make a series of portrait drawings to accompany the show – which I am working on at the moment. They will all be unveiled at Sunderland Museum and the other venues on 7th February 2019. Here is some more information.

https://www.rct.uk/about/news-and-features/leonardo-da-vinci-a-life-in-drawing#/

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/feb/07/queen-collection-leonardo-da-vinci-drawings-tour

December 14th, 2018

IMMORTALISE – THE NEW ART GALLERY, WALSALL – ANDREW TIFT – ALL WELCOME

May 21st, 2018

SOLO EXHIBITION – NEW ART GALLERY, WALSALL – (galleries 2,3 and 4) – 25th May to 2nd September 2018. Private View Thursday 24th May 6-8pm

February 2nd, 2018

FACE VALUE – A REFLECTION ON CONTEMPORARY PORTRAITURE

http://www.collyerbristow.com/art-gallery/face-value

I’m showing some work in a new exhibition at the Collyer Bristow Gallery , London. It ‘s a survey of contemporary portraiture and has been curated by Kathleen Soriano, formerly head of Exhibitions at the Royal Academy and the National Portrait Gallery.

It runs from 16th June to the 14th October 2016

@CBGallery1 / @kclsoriano

#facevalueportraits

Instagram: Kathleen.Soriano / collyer_bristow_gallery

(Please click on the link above for more information)

June 8th, 2016

NEW WORK

I started a new series of paintings and drawings back in January for future shows in the UK and Belgium in mid and late 2018. I can’t post many of the pictures because obviously there has to be an element of “reveal” at the exhibitions but I thought I would post this first painting.
It’s a portrait of a great guy called Max who didn’t know me from Adam when we first met but was open minded and trusting enough to pose for a series of nude and clothed studies so thanks for embracing the project Max, you were brilliant. I wanted to jump up a gear in scale because it’s a large museum show so it’s a big painting at 6′ x 5′ and I found the shift in scale very enjoyable. I made this painting in monochrome because I wanted to keep it simple, raw and broken down to the bare essentials. I wanted to represent the intensity and physical presence of Max with no distractions in the composition. Here are some photographs charting the progress.

April 24th, 2016

NEW SOLO EXHIBITION – The New Art Gallery, Walsall and Roberto Polo Gallery, Brussels

I will be having a new solo exhibition scheduled for mid 2018. It will initially be staged at The New Art Gallery, Walsall for approximately 3 months and then it will tour to The Roberto Polo Gallery in Brussels.

It seems like quite a long way off but they are both huge spaces so I’ll be working flat out from later this year until the opening…and I can’t wait.

There will be a mixture of old work and new but predominantly it will be new work. It will be a collection of figurative paintings and drawings and will all be based around portraiture, though all the sitters will be my own choice. I’ve been thinking about the project for over 9 months, largely while I’ve been walking my dog, washing up, in the shower, in the studio, wherever an idea strikes and I’ve been keeping very detailed notes in sketchbooks. I’m currently approaching people to sit for me and I’ve already have a few sittings which have gone extremely well.

Back to the drawing board…