The Buxton Spa Prize - First Prize

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I am flattered to have been awarded first prize in The Buxton Spa Prize 2019, after entering two plein air paintings of Buxton (All Aboard - Buxton and From the Slopes).

From the Slopes was also chosen as one of the five Buxton International Festival Choice paintings chosen by the Festival team.

The exhibition, featuring work by over 140 artists, can be seen at the Green Man Gallery, Buxton, and runs from 28 June to 31 July. The Buxton Spa Prize 2019 is sponsored by The Trevor Osborne Charitable Trust, The University of Derby and Creative Heritage.

https://www.visitbuxton.co.uk/buxton-spa-prize-2019-winners-announced/

Homages

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Homages are indulgent.

They are flights of fancy.

Homages are links between experiences, objects, and admired art and paintings of the past.

They came out of seeing works in galleries, reading, or simply stumbling across items and ideas. In some way they act as a reminder of the importance of meaning and metaphor in art. Not all art, but certainly much art. It might not seem so, but Homages are also a testing ground for new colours and painterly experiments. They give me time to think, away from the urgency of the life room or the panic of plein air.

The first, Homage No.1 (o Durer), came about after seeing the wonderful Adam and Even (1507) at the Prado. Thoughts of expulsion, forbidden fruit and, later, an Alessi bird whistle (that no longer made a sound) combined to form this first flight of fancy.

The Royal Academy Life Room Paintings

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The life room at the Royal Academy has proved to be fertile ground over the past few months. Circular wooden benches and steel rails where the likes of Turner and Leighton perhaps once stood, now forming part of a timeless space where models exist not merely in space, but as part of the space itself.

Life Drawing at the Royal Academy

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Some recent drawings from the NEAC life class at the Royal Academy. Hopefully it won't be too long before I have some paintings to show too.