Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2022 i Artists & Illustrators

… that I can reveal the winners of this year’s British Art Prize. Featuring work in all mediums, subjects and styles, myself and the other judges had the difficult task of whittling the 50 winners out of the thousands of entries from across the globe; it’s at times like this when you wish you could make everyone a winner. But those who got through are very deserving – the first prize winner’s work is featured on the cover; another perk of entering The British Art Prize – and all will be exhibited side by side at gallery@oxo on London’s Southbank, home to world-famous cultural venues. We’d like to invite you to come and see the paintings up close: the exhibition is open daily from 22nd-27th November from 11am-6pm and is…

Things we love… This November, the first major UK exhibition devoted to women artists working in Germany in the early 20th century will be on show at the Royal Academy of Arts. Making Modernism will include 67 artworks, primarily by Paula Modersohn-Becker, Käthe Kollwitz, Gabriele Münter and Marianne Werefkin. Although less familiar than their male counterparts, these artists were central to the development and dissemination of modernism. Seen through the lens of its female practitioners, key themes of modernism such as self-portraiture, still life and urban and rural scenes will be re-evaluated. Visit the Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Galleries between 12 November 2022 and 12 February 2023. Don’t miss… …the spotlight on Pieter Bruegel the Younger (1564 – 1638), an artist who was hugely successful in his lifetime but whose later reputation has been…

I COME FROM A MUSIC BACKGROUND; I was the drummer in a rock band called Heavens Basement. We had a great time and released an album and toured around the world. But I’d always liked painting and began whilst on tour. I would paint in the tour buses and dressing rooms before shows. I decided to step away from music in 2016 for both personal and professional reasons but by this point, I was already obsessed with painting and had begun selling my work. I dived into painting full-time almost right away. Financially, I had next to nothing when I left the band, but it was crystal clear to me this was the path I had to follow. Art fairs were a great starting point for me. The first year…

DESPITE HAVING A WAITING LIST of approximately 200 commissions, Ian Bourne still hasn’t given up the day job as an Operations Manager for a social care company. Juggling a full-time job with his art is far from a stroll in the park and often involves regimental planning, especially when he has a show to put on. His first was in New York in 2016 and, if he has any regrets in life, it’s the fact that his father – who was a draughtsman by trade – didn’t live long enough to attend the first night. He’s mostly settled into portrait painting and, of the 1,000 plus he has now drawn, less than half of them have been famous faces. But the familiarity of drawing someone known is intriguing and a…

I’ve been an artist for as long as I can remember. Though, for a long time, I never had the courage to call myself one. After all, at what point in your creative career are you considered an artist? I think it’s a concept a lot of creatives struggle with. Recently, I’ve come to terms with the fact that it probably isn’t a gold stamp for talent, training or yearly earnings, but more of a lifestyle. I’ve been painting and drawing since I could hold a pencil. I mean – how else are you supposed to spend your six-week summer holidays? A lot of the time, my paintings start with a photograph that catches my eye. Often something that plays with light or captures someone’s skin in hyper detail. Firefly…

Roger Aslin My work, as a modern-day flaneur, takes me into the city where I take images on a camera or phone, later to be refined and honed digitally in the studio before commencing painting on paper, board or canvas. The intense colour of the finished piece is achieved by painting multiple layers; the image also changing and refining during this process with elements added or subtracted to obtain the final image. This piece Café Scene with Four Figures is based on a photograph taken during a trip overseas. The image was then manipulated on the computer before being transferred onto paper for the start of the painting process. I was drawn to this scene because of the light, colour and placement of the figures in the overall composition. rogeraslin.com…

IT’S A WOEFUL EFFECT of rather male-dominated art history that there aren’t more great paintings of children. One thinks of the wonderful works of art of Mary Cassatt and even the great Norman Rockwell, as painters who painted children’s lives rather than using children as an adjunct to a story or just included in a formal portrait. It’s true that children being children do make it more difficult. They don’t like to sit still for any length of time or be quiet for long periods, so arranging a sitting is not easy. Also, a child has a very subtle structure, as compared to an adult. So, for this How To I wanted to discuss some of the problems and pleasures of painting children. My painting is really only a study…

This year, I wanted to push myself to take on more interior paintings rather than just still life. [This] was a painting that was unusual in that it required almost no initial composition. In fact, I had only started the painting to try out a new canvas. That morning, I was looking for a still life arrangement, but when I walked by the washroom door, I was struck by the light coming through the window. It didn’t require any studies to affirm that it would be worth my time; it was enough to simply paint. The combination of the plants, the sink and the light really struck me. I wanted to capture a moment in time in an otherwise ordinary part of my house and convey a little bit of…

RAY BALKWILL SWAc Ray is a strong advocate of painting en plein air, his main objective being to capture the mood and spirit of a place. Living as he does on the East Devon coast, it is little wonder that the wide-open spaces of sea, estuary and sky have been the mainspring of his art for four decades. GARY ARMER Cover artist and winner of the British Art Prize 2022, Gary is a contemporary artist who seeks to celebrate the beauty of organised chaos through intricate oil paintings of collections. He specialised in portraiture until lockdown gave him the opportunity to explore his latest series of works. LOTTA TEALE Lotta takes her paints with her wherever she goes, living as she has recently between Jerusalem, Bangkok, London, Tuscany and Pakistan.…

AFRICAN ART NOW By Osei Bonsu This book, by British-Ghanaian curator, critic, art historian and curator of International Art at Tate Modern, Osei Bonsu is an expansive overview featuring 50 enlightening pro. les of some of the most interesting and innovative contemporary African artists working today. A phenomenon traceable back to the 1980s, contemporary African art is undergoing a period of artistic renaissance. No longer confined to the margins of institutional and commercial visibility, African art finds itself at the centre of a global narrative of permanent change. Ilex Press, £40.00…

MESSAGE OF THE MONTH Peter J Hodgson My sources of inspiration are multivarious. Lately I take a lot of inspiration from whatever is happening in the world and close to home. I pick up ideas for techniques from various sources too, including Artists & Illustrators where I pick up wonderful tips on how to layer, compose and create elements of the piece like foliage and sky. As an artist it is important to look at art and other artists because, even though I am in my 40s and back in education, I find that there are few aspects of these courses that show you how to do the simplest things like creating clouds in the sky by simply using tissue to blot the paint. I am mostly self-taught as I…

WHILE HE WAS FOUND DOODLING on bits of cardboard as a small boy, Mark McCallum’s love for painting didn’t emerge until he was in his twenties, which was very much encouraged by his lecturer at university in the eighties. “The very first oil painting I completed was a compositional study of a medical skeleton wrapped in a colourful material. It was at that point I became hooked on painting.” He describes himself as a semi-abstract, impressionist painter, but also a colourist who enjoys creating landscapes, particularly seascapes, on a stretched linen canvas for the sense of comfort of knowing how his brushes will respond. Though he trained in oil painting, for the past five years he paints solely in acrylic for the improved pigment quality and less drying time. He…

1 Take a Risk It might pay off, it might not. Rent a studio space, book an art fair, whatever it is, do something that gives you real goals to work towards and put you in a professional mindset. 2 Don’t please anyone other than yourself Paint what you enjoy, not what other people enjoy. If those two things happen to mix, great. But try to resist following trends. 3 Be in it for the long haul You want to paint for the rest of your life. Social media and all that is great, and I’m sure everyone reading this knows the importance of marketing but that is an ever-changing landscape, so spending time putting paint on canvas is the most important thing.…

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH Our annual British Art Prize, in association with edding, was designed to provide artists of all ages and abilities with a platform to gain valuable exposure and recognition for their work. A prize fund worth over £15,000 attracted the entries by the thousands and quality paintings and drawings poured in from the UK and beyond. An esteemed judging panel made up of Scottish artist Bruce McLean, professional artist, tutor and Artists & Illustrators columnist Jake Spicer, The One Show’s Artist in Residence, Adebanje Alade, the Managing Director of edding, Andy Gutteridge and Niki Browes, the editor of this magazine, had the impossible task of narrowing the entries down to a longlist of 150 before choosing the shortlist of 50. Of the process, Jake said, “It’s been a…

AN ARTIST’S RELATIONSHIP with a particular place is a constant in art but infusing the elusive quality of its spirit into a painting can be challenging. As a professional painter, I have always been an advocate of painting en plein air, the inspiration coming from my love of nature and being immersed in the landscape itself. As a native of Devon, I first discovered this innate romanticism in the brooding landscape of Dartmoor, but then had it reawakened on the banks of the Exe Estuary where I now live and work. Above all else, paintings must contain emotion and a connection to the place. Of course, the head is important, but it is the heart which is the vital ingredient. The biggest challenge of course, is to get your hand…

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2 NOVEMBER An eclectic mix of antiques, paintings, and illustrations are for sale at the Chelsea Antiques and Fine Art Fair until 6th November at the Chelsea Old Town Hall. chelseaantiquesfair.co.uk 15 NOVEMBER The Royal Cambrian Academy of Art invites submissions for its 2023 Annual Open Exhibition. Both 2D and 3D work in any medium is welcome. rcaconwyopen.artopps.co.uk 30 NOVEMBER EU residents or taxpayers are encouraged to apply to the European Media Art Platform’s residency programme. Prize funds total up to €11,000 plus accommodation. call.emare.eu…

AS A CHILD, David Barber would get lost in drawing the stories in his head; it was his form of play. From battles and undersea adventures to lorries and diesel tanks – they all featured in his drawings, courtesy of his imagination and his father who was a truck driver. But while he spent his childhood covered in paint, he doesn’t particularly come from a creative family. “Sport was always at the centre of my family. However, my dad has always enjoyed making [things] and is an accomplished woodworker. I think I get the urge to create from him,” he says. “I remember family members telling me that I was good at drawing when I was small and I’m sure that motivated me to do more. The combination of enjoying…

IN HIS FINAL YEAR STUDYING illustration at Cardiff University, Ed Fairburn became interested in context, intervention and the idea of ‘hijacking’ ordinary objects and surfaces in extraordinary ways. One of his most enjoyable efforts was a mail-based project, a series of illustrated envelopes, postcards and unusual objects: anything he could paint on and post, to create a forced gallery space within the postal system. Lots of the items he mailed were simply empty envelopes, which he used as canvases, but he also posted the odd puzzle, including a Rubik’s Cube placed inside a clear plastic bag with stamps and the words “solve me” written on the outside. He wrote the delivery address across several faces of the cube, before jumbling it and dropping it into an extra wide post box.…

As Steve Jobs famously said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” While I appreciate lots of art genres such as pop art and surrealism, I’ve always found myself drawn to representational art. It was the subject that I excelled in at school but it was at college where I fell in love with oil painting. It was here I won awards for painting and graphic design and went on to study design at university. My fascination with branding led me to a career in marketing working with a creative agency but all the while I was painting alongside. I carved out a career as a portrait artist painting…

This painting is one in a series of paintings entitled The Divine Feminine, highlighting the strong spirit and strength women possess and the fight to make their voices heard. They celebrate strong women, showing within them the inner strength of a warrioress; not harsh or cruel but with strength, compassion and humility. This piece, called Perception is asking you to question, step back out of the matrix, take off the blinkers and see things from a different perspective. The abstract background is built up in layers, using acrylic and spray paint, oil pastels and paint pens. I always start off creating an abstract and then create the portrait over the top, building up in layers again, still using intuitive marks and colour choice, creating the features, and leaving large areas…