NEW DRAWING
Here’s new drawing or Ray, who kindly posed for me with his full body tattoo. It’s a drawing and will be in the Winter Show at Plus One gallery next week.
February 10th, 2013
Posts filed under 'Art'
Metro Gallery – Melbourne
6 Realist artists, including myself ,were invited to participate in an exhibition called “British Realism Now ” by the Metro Gallery in Melbourne. It opens next week until 24th December 2012 and we’re delighted to be flying the flag for British Realism, a big underground movement in British art but not seen in Australia before.
December 2nd, 2012
BBC PUBLIC ART COLLECTION
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/andrew-tift
The BBc have developed a new website which is building up comprehensive lists of all art which is in the nation’s public collections. They’ve done a page on me if anybody wants to see any of my work in public places. There’s actually a lot more that I can add. If I can get my head around the site I’ll add the rest. My link is at the top
December 2nd, 2012
2 new pictures
SELF PORTRAIT
ANDY HAMILTON
Sorry it has been a while since I last logged on, it’s been a busy year. Here are 2 new pictures which I’ve done for a show in Austrailia in December, more info to follow.
The portrait of Andy Hamilton, the late saxaphone player from Birmingham is painted in acrylic on board and is 82cm x 53cm. I liked the way the top of his saxaphone contoured around like he was a snake charmner and this instrument was a snake.
The second image is quite an intense self portrait with chiaro scuro lighting. It’s a drawing in charcoal and is 84cm x 67cm. I think sometimes the use of black space adds to the stmosphere. I love the idea of doing self portraits, in the spirit of Rembrandt, I try to do at least one a year.
December 2nd, 2012
ANDY HAMILTON DIES
I saw on the local TV news a few weeks ago that the Birmingham based Jazz legend Andy Hamilton died which I was very sad to hear. I think he was about 94 tears old. I’ll never forget the entrance that he mad when I went to his house for the first sitting with him, gliding down his stair lift with a sharp, pin striped suit and trilby, holding his sax and looking every part the legend that he was. More pictures of Andy to come…
June 17th, 2012
MURAL FOR SCARLETT’S ROOM
Anne and me spent a long Bank Holiday weekend doing a mural for Scarlett’s room, It’s difficult to know what she’s into at 6 months old so when our friends, Nige and Lauren, sent a Cornish picture for her we thought that would be a great theme because we go there a lot. She looks pretty dwarfed infront of the mural but she’ll grow into it.
June 17th, 2012
GERMAN TV SHOW
A German TV company approached me and a few of the other artists from Plus One to do a show for them on Photorealism. The show is called Galileo and I understand from the producer that it is a German version of The South Bank Show but a bit more populist, so maybe with a bit of The One Show thrown in too. I recorded it a few weeks ago at the gallery in Chelsea and the background was mocked up to look like an artists studio. I was basically doing a lot of talking and they filmed me painting a little segment of a painting which I was working on. I think my painting of Ray, the floating tattooed man is also a big feature of the show. I think it’s going to be broadcast over the next few weeks.
June 17th, 2012
CURRENT AND FORTHCOMING EXHIBITIONS
It’s a busy time at the moment, I working my way through a series of commissions and I’ve got these exhibitions in the pipeline.
1. The Frissiras Museum in Athens currently have a large exhibition of works in their collection on at the moment and my painting “Pretending to Be Jesus” is in the show. There’s a huge thick catalogue to accompany the show which would have gone a long way to paying off Greece’s national debt had the funds been invested that way. If you’re in Athens, ( an interesting place at the moment) the exhibition runs until 30th September.
2. I will be exhibiting my portrait of Eric Sykes at the annual Royal Society of Portrait Painters exhibition at the Mall Galleries. Off the top of my head I think it opens on 2nd May for about two weeks.
3. Also in May The New Art Gallery, Walsall are shoing my very first public commission which I did in 1994. It was called Les and Ernie and featured two pigeon racers from Walsall. It seems like a lifetime ago now when I did that but I still like it. It’s in a different style than my realist work. When I did my MA I was really interested in Stanley Spencer and it’s really influenced by his style. The Exhibition starts in May.
4. I’m showing some work in Melbourne at the Metro Gallery with some of the artists from Plus One Gallery. It’s a showcase of British Realism. This show opens in October.
5. I don’t want to say too much about the final show at the moment because it’s still being put together but it’s in October at a major public contemporary art gallery in Prague. It’s a survey of contemporary British painting with some pretty heavy weight artists so I was very flattered to have been asked to exhibit in the show. More later…
April 23rd, 2012
NEWSPAPER ARTICLE – THE MIRROR
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/who-needs-a-camera-artists-create-766729
Here’sa recent article from The Mirror about the gallery that I show with in London, Plus One. I thinkk the Daily mail printed it first then it was picked up by ther mirror, then TV and newsapers all over the world. It’s quite amazing how one article can generate so much momentum these days, As a result there have been queues outside the gallery and hundreds of people have ben visiting each day. Quite incredible.
April 23rd, 2012