Posts filed under 'Art'
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
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
May 21st, 2018
February 2nd, 2018
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
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…
August 9th, 2015
I had a sitting with Noddy Holder last Friday which was fantastic. Some of you know I’m a huge music fan and it was great to chat about the music from that period during the sitting and he was totally down to earth as you would expect.
April 8th, 2015
I’m showing with a new gallery , The Roberto Polo Gallery in Brussels. I’ll be having a show there in a few years time, no fixed date yet, lots of new work and this show will also tour to a public gallery in the UK. It’s in the beautiful Old Quarter of Brussels near The Grand Place. Here’s a shot of the current show there by the acclaimed artist Jan Vanriet .
April 8th, 2015
The Palace of Westminster contacted me to do a portrait of Lord Carrington which I worked on for quite a sizeable portion of last year. It’s set in his manor house in Buckinghamshire and I liked the atmospheric lighting of the space, it’s proportions and link to his ancestry. It was unveiled in February at the House of Lords and it seemed to go down very well. One Lord came up and complimented me and said his son ran an art gallery in a very matter of fact way, as if it was a small Cornish gallery in Penzance…”Yes, it’s called White Cube, have you heard of it ?” Said Lord Jopling.
I’ve also added a drawing of Lord Carrington which I made before I started the painting.
The Parliamentary Arts Committee also commissioned 4 films to accompany the portrait which explain it in much more detail and these are listed below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsB7uDTpU2s&list=PLj3mInRJqIel_mECh6JHOTRRdADwPIBFb&index=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emd-0Pqs398&index=2&list=PLj3mInRJqIel_mECh6JHOTRRdADwPIBFb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M9Y-iHrZ_Y&index=3&list=PLj3mInRJqIel_mECh6JHOTRRdADwPIBFb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YagAbibeNao&list=PLj3mInRJqIel_mECh6JHOTRRdADwPIBFb&index=4
http://www.parliament.uk/about/art-in-parliament/news/2015/february/andrew-tift-paints-lord-carringtons-portrait-for-the-house-of-lords/
April 8th, 2015
A few weeks ago now I went to Sandy Nairne’s leaving event at the National Portrait Gallery. There was a huge turn out of the great and the good in the art world which is testament to the fact that he’s been such a great and effective Director at the Gallery. A great night.
April 8th, 2015
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