I have just completed my submission to the National Open Art Competition 2011. I had two pieces accepted for the Competition's exhibition in Chichester last year. It was a very good event and I am hoping to have work accepted again this year. Fingers crossed!
(Above)
The Arab Boy I Know through Kees Van Dongen, 2010
Kees van Dongen is one of my favourite painters and I often look to his work for guidance.
The 6 pieces I have entered into this year NOAC share a common theme: The Artist's Model. This is a reoccurring subject in my work: people whose image has been immortalised in the collective consciousness by the artist. So, I have never met the sitters in these portraits but I know their image through their representations by other artists. I think of my paintings as vicarious portraits.
All 6 pieces are in mixed media (Indian and acrylic inks, watercolour crayons, water-soluble wax crayons) on 100% cotton rag, acid-free paper and are all quite small, typically (before mounting and framing) about 14cm by 18cm.
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The French Sculptor's Russian Muse 2011
This painting was inspired by images (photographs, paintings and sculptures) of Dina Vernay, a Russian woman who lived in Paris and posed for (among others) the sculptor Aristide Maillol.
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Picasso's Girl 2011
A painting inspired by a black and white photograph of Picasso's model, the artist Françoise Gilot.
Click here to find out more about
Francoise Gilot.
(Below) The Black Beret 2011
This painting references various images: a photograph of Brigitte Bardot sporting a black beret, a portrait of the actress by Kees van Dongen and “the red scarf” portrait of Aristide Bruant by Toulouse Lautrec.
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Jacqueline III 2010
This is the third in a series of paintings that I did in response to various portraits by Picasso of Jacqueline Roque.
(Below)
La Martiniquaise 2011
And finally, a portrait of a woman whose image I know through the wonderful lithographs of Matisse.
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