Posts filed under 'Art'
The final stage of the BP portrait award was exhibited in Bristol for the private view on 24th March 2007 – open to the public until the 20th May 2007. What a splendid venue, a beautiful Victorian gallery. The excellent space shows off the works to their best. The lighting was wonderful, cascading down from huge skylights in this fitting venue. I took my mum down to the opening, and we lunched like kings! The photograph doesn’t do justice to the space but it does give an impression. Another great day! (sorry about the wedding anniversary Anne).
March 26th, 2007
Well, how Lovely! It was definitely worth buying the dinner jacket. I was commissioned to paint a posthumous portrait of Judge Michael Hyam the chief recorder by the Old Bailey. Unfortunately Judge Hyam died suddenly some years before so all the conversions, and meetings I would normally have with the sitter were not possible. I used a sole photograph to work from and used the current recorder to assist with the staging of the official dress – which was very helpful. Anne (my wife) and I were asked to dinner where they chose to unveil the portrait. The venue was extremely grand at Masion House the Lord Major and the Lady Mayoress official residence. We were in good company, the masters, prime wardens and upper bailiff of the livery companies of the city of London. It was like a walk back in time with men in armour to greet us and an orchestra playing chamber music in the background. The picture depicts the late Judge Michael Hyam, to the left Mrs Diana Hyam and her son Mr Ben Hyam with of course myself in the fore ground.
March 26th, 2007
I’m working on the images for the “Kitty” show in May at The New Art Gallery, Walsall. I’ve started with a series of drawings in graphite, charcoal and carbon, around A2 size initially. I love working in B/W and tone, it’s so fundamental . Charcoal is such a crude medium but at ther same time it is very subtle. I’m looking forward to doing some larger scale drawings over the coming months, they’re very liberating because they are so immediate in comparison to paint. I’m also doing a series of paintings and some etchings too but the overall flavour of the show is going to be B/W with colour paintings. Watch this space…
January 29th, 2007
This is double page article featuring a description of my recent portrait of Lord Chief Justice Woolf for the Inner Temple. I talk about the composition, the pose, discuss certain areas of the painting like the head, hands, fireplace, John Bratby painting on the wall etc… It feels a little like I’ve taken over the A&I Magazine recently, but I’ll be taking a rest from it for a whie I think, though there will be more…watch this space.
January 28th, 2007
This is a 4 page article detailing my approach to painting a portrait and it features a sequence, or step by step commentary about how I build up a painting. The portrait in the example is a colour profile of Kitty Godley which I painted in February 2006 and deliberately recorded in stages because I know from experience how interested people are in seeing the mechanism of a painting. It shows the progression stage by stage from beginning to end. I only wish that I could show these images bigger but for copyright reasons I can’t.
January 28th, 2007
This is an article in the very glossy in -house magazine published by BP, which I think is a quarterly and this came out just before Christmas 2006.
It’s an article about 6 of the artists that have won the BP Portrait Award since BP began sponsoring the event in 1990. There are interviews with Victoria Russell, Stuart Pearson Wright, Ishbel Myerscough, Justin Mortimer, Catherine Goodman, my good friend Peter Edwards and myself.
January 28th, 2007
This is a 4 page article written about my recent show in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was primarily a B/W based show featuring paintings and drawings and the article came out. The article is partly written by Francisco Arechiga and partly my answers to a series of questions from the journalist on the magazine.
January 28th, 2007
November 20th, 2006
My portrait of Lord Chief Justice Woolf was unveiled at a dinner at the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple in London on 15th November 2006. The Inner Temple is like walking back in time to the 15th century. The dinner was held in a grand hall straight out of Harry Potter with wooden walls and shields on the wall and everybody that I spoke to had perfect elecution, manners and etiquette. Anne and myself felt a bit like fish out of water at the start but everyone was so nice to us we just had a great time. The portrait seemed to go down well. The brief was to be more informal and relaxed than most of the other portraits in the temple which is why it was set at Lord Woolfs home rather than in robes in the Temple. It took me about 5 months to paint and is the result of 5 sittings . It is painted in acrylis and will soon be framed. Look out for an article on the portrait in the December edition of Artists and Illustrators magazine.(see the above image for a close up)
November 20th, 2006
The BP Portrait Award has now finished in London at the National Portrait Gallery and it travels to Aberdeen Art Gallery. This show opens on Friday 25th November and continues through to the 3rd February 2007. It then moves on to The Royal West of England Academy, Bristol from 31st March where it closes on 20th May 2007.
November 5th, 2006
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