Posts filed under 'Art'
I was chatting to a curator a while ago who basically said are “you’re still doing the Portraiture then”, with the inference of why don’t you try some of the more contemporary stuff like video or installation . Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not closed off to that kind of thing at all, I love Marc Quinn and Hirst’s early works in taxidermy I think were the high points of the British art boom of the 1990’s but for me it has always been an always will be Portraiture. Since I was about 22 and the penny dropped with me that I like painting and engaging with people most of all and that has stuck with me over the past 20 years. I basically came to the conclusion back then that “people are interesting” and it was that seemingly obvious realisation that has driven everything I’ve done since. If anything , my interest has been heightened over the years. I love painting people and visiting them and making photographs and drawings and then the final painting or drawing. While I’m out and about I’m constanly looking at people and thinking they’s be a fantastic sitter and quite often I’ll approach people and arrange a sitting or while I’m in a foreigh country I’ll just go up to people. It’s a bit of a chance really but what’s the worst that can happen , they say no. In fact 95% of the time they are intrigued and just go for it. So, basically I’m just celebrating the fact that portraiture is a constantly profound and inspiring genre for me to work in and I never get bored of it because of that simple observation 20 years ago that ” People are interesting”. Please don’t think I compare myself to any of these giants but I wonder if the curator would have said to Freud, Bacon, Aurbach, Warhol, Close , Sanders , ” You know this Potraiture game…”
Somethig people often ask me is why I don’t exhibit my photographs in shows. I love photography as much as painting and drawing, especially since the digital revolution and you have total control of an image. I love doing photographic sittings and creating avisual dcumentation of a meeting. I find photography so intense during a sitting that I am exhausted after a session which I never feel from painting. But, I don’t consider myself a photographer, where I do consider myself a painter. I guess I use a camera as a sketch book and very rarely leave the house without my little compact snapper ( I use an SLR for sittings).I find digital photographs very precious even though they are snappy and disposable and i’m an avid documentor. I always think that when you travel somewhere with a camera your visual experience is amplified 10 fold. I have a friend who currently lives in India who has no formal art training but is a fantastic photographer, he just has the eye and takes so many photographs on his travels in the far east which would look brilliant in any Sunday magazine. I’m always a litle disappointed with my travel photographs and they are really nothing more than memory snaps. I use photography in a different way to my friend Alex . My photography scruitinises people in microscopic detail and I’m more concerned with getting lighting issues perfect. I know exactly what I want from a portrait and need to control the lighting and situation rather like an art director I guess which is why I think I tend to work inside rather than outside because outside I have less control.
September 17th, 2010
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 tank of water and I’m convinced that that scene played a part in Damian Hirst’s animals in glass tanks series.
July 6th, 2010
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 life and environment out there but BP have also been excellent sponsors of art at the Tate, British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, and in my experience at the NPG they have nurtured, encouraged and inspired a generation of figurative painters over the past 20+ years.
I was sorry that Mike Gaskell came 2nd for the 3rd time. Another excellent piece. The intimacy in his small portraits almost hint at a new level of realism, they are quite astonishing when you see them in the flesh. I have attached some of my favourites from this years show including Mike Gaskell’s, Mary Jane Ansell, Alan Coulson, Nathan Ford, Thea Penna and Carlos Muro’s beautiful 4 way portrait which strangely has the feel of a Marcus Harvey painting when you seen the mark making up close.
July 6th, 2010
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 Michael -( I’ll not be too specific before I’ve checked it out with him) which will be quite a large portrait and hopefully I’ll be able to post some development images.
I think I’ve mentioned previously that I’ll be showing some portrait based work in a group show at Plus One Gallery with Philip Harris, Graig Wylie and Simon Hennessey next March so I’m working on some personal work for that too. I’ve always wanted to paint the excellent Birmingham based saxaphone player Andy Hamilton CBE who was recently 90. I had a sitting with him about 3 weeks ago which couldn’t have gone better and I got some gold there.
I’ll shortly be unveiling a portrait of our friend Sam so don’t go changin’.
June 26th, 2010
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 until I saw them and recognised quite a lot. I love B/W photography so much and it very often feeds into my own work. Stand out portraits for me were Truman Capote, Giacometti, Yves Saint Laurent and Tennessee Williams – what portrait artist wouldn’t want to capture those guys.
We were also invted to The Royal Opera House to see Carmen by BP which was a great evening because I’d never been before and it was such a beautiful building. It was so baroque and swirling and gold which kind of also gave it a strangely kitsch feel too and the stage surround reminded me of the old clips of Max Miller in the music halls of the 1950’s . Sorry if if it sounds like an exercise in bragging , (I can assure you that day to day life in the Black country is very different) but we were in the Royal Box reception area, super posh, and just off there is the Queens toilet which was quite a sight to behold.
June 26th, 2010
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 and the disciplined objectivity which I’m working towards.
I would add that I’m not a Whan fan, this was a commission – although I do have a soft spot / guilty pleasure for this particular song. I particularly like the way fashion defines decades , which is often evident in portraiture. The cover photo of “George and Andrew” looks like the photographs you used to get in the windows and on the walls barber shops in the 1980’s and it reminds me of the days when I used to have hair and visited the barbers in the Black Country with my Dad and brother as a school boy.
Click on the image to enlarge
June 26th, 2010
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 his expression in this depiction. Cheers Bandana .
June 26th, 2010
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 another version last year in the same sushi bar but this is from a different angle and you can actually see the figures faces.
It’s in the rather more immediate drawing style which I have been developing , basically just giving the figures or portraits a context or feel of an environment while focusing most interest on the figures
June 26th, 2010
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 the gallery to get everybody together in a web based networking set up. So basically it was a bit of a jolly lat night at the NPG, meeting up with old friends from years ago to present day. In fact, a lot of us are already in touch already but there ids so much scope for linking up and liaising with other artists…..very exciting. It’s also linked up with the Olympic funding and workshops are going to be set up to encourage the youngsters.
I met Philip Harris and Mike Gaskell earlier on in the day and we had lots of coffee and an appauling lunch in soho, ( soup of the day… economy tinned tomato soup, carefully opened out of view with three slices of courgette…yummy and a bargain at £4.00) But we managed to catch up and went to see some exhibitions around town. After more coffee we went to the NPG and met up with a lot of the previous winners , even going back to when JPS sponsored it. Humphrey Ocean and Tai Shan-Shierenburg who won that one then the BP winners, Phil Harris, Peter Edwards, Ishbel Myerscough, Stuart Pearson – Wright, James Lloyd, Craig Wylie and shortlisted artists and travel award winners Joel Ely and Annie-the lovely couple back together again, David Hancock and his partner , Kevin Cunningham who I haven’t seen for years and Brendan Kelley ( who amazingly hasn’t won it yet) and lots of others I’ve missed out.
Good luck for this year Mr. Gaskell.
May 18th, 2010
click on the image to enlarge
May 12th, 2010
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