http://www.andrewtift.co.uk/portrait-artist Andrew Tift, portrait artist discusses his work Tue, 06 Jul 2010 08:41:04 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Great great news yesterday, 6 Music has been saved from the chop, largely due to people power in the modern age with  hundreds of facebook and twitter campaigns and is reputed to become a "case study" in campaigning. I think they completely underestimated the passion of minority music listeners. http://www.andrewtift.co.uk/portrait-artist/?p=539 I watched Tony Hancock's "The Rebel" on Sunday afternoon. I hadn't seen it for a few years but it's still an excellent take on the contemporary art scene. There's one scene where he's at an "artsy"  party and the host is submerged as a diver in a 12 foot long ... http://www.andrewtift.co.uk/portrait-artist/?p=536 I brought a gazebo from Tesco for £7.50 and have been painting outside on the yard. I felt a bit like Vincent amongst the sunflowers in a field...well, the Walsall version anyway. But it's great to have the birds and bees flying around and the breeze in the trees, quite ... http://www.andrewtift.co.uk/portrait-artist/?p=534   We went to the dinner and ceremony for this years BP Portrait Award , about 2 weeks ago now. It was a bit more of a subdued affair this year with all the goings on in the Gulf of Mexico. It is, undoubtedly terrible what is happening to the wild ... http://www.andrewtift.co.uk/portrait-artist/?p=532 I've done quite a lot of drawings over past 4 years or so which I have absolutely loved doing because of their relative immediacy compared to paintings, but I'll be  developing some new paintings over the rest of the year. At the moment I'm working on a portrait of Father ... http://www.andrewtift.co.uk/portrait-artist/?p=524 Anne and me went to the Directors annual reception a few weeks ago at the NPG. Andrew Marr off the telly made a speech and I snapped him here with Anne. The Irving Penn exhibition was also on at the NPG that night, I wasn't too familiar with his photographs ... http://www.andrewtift.co.uk/portrait-artist/?p=522 Although I work in portraiture I am slightly obsessed with objects too and often combine the two in one portrait, see The Kinnocks or my recent portrait od Alan Garner. I'm also a big muso and I love doing these little paintings of old records which have their own character ... http://www.andrewtift.co.uk/portrait-artist/?p=520 Here is another portrait of Bandana who, to me, is endlessly fascinating. This was from the final stages of the sitting which I had with him and as the evening went on in the pub he / we had a few beers and I think you can see that in ... http://www.andrewtift.co.uk/portrait-artist/?p=518 Here's a picture of a scene in a sushi bar in Tokyo. It's in the Kabaconichi district which is similar to Soho in London and has as very dodgy feel to it in the same way that soho has, although it is run by the Yakusa ( mafia). I did ... http://www.andrewtift.co.uk/portrait-artist/?p=516  I was in London for the day yesterday for the launch of a new web based  link up for BP artists. The BP Portrait Award has been going for over 20 years now so a lot of artists have passed through during that time. Someone's had a great idea at ... http://www.andrewtift.co.uk/portrait-artist/?p=514