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rsportraitpainters

A charity dedicated to portraiture by living artists - both its appreciation and its practice.

"The drawing ‘Paula’ depicts my wife in a work "The drawing ‘Paula’ depicts my wife in a work from 2018. It’s a piece that is part of a multi-year program of highly resolved drawings that I started in 2016. In this program of work, I have explored the possibilities within the visual language of continuous tone. While pushing the depiction of the surface as far as I can, I’m always aiming at maintaining a careful relationship between the dangers of overuse of photographs, and capturing a formal consistency which must unite the work as a whole. My focus, while I draw, centers on reducing unnecessary contrasts, editing shapes to improve their interest, editing out extraneous material that distracts, and maintaining a lively and energetic surface treatment. These efforts help keep the work in the realm of it being a drawing, and not a quasi-photograph. ‘Paula’ took three months to complete. My time to draw each weekend is limited to four hours a day. Nevertheless, this time limitation has, in itself, somewhat prescribed a drawing dynamic that favors the use of continuous tone. Furthermore, by entering into a future commitment, with each drawing likely to last two or three months, I am necessarily never in a rush. Each time I begin drawing, my plan is clear, unhurried and highly efficient. The physical space I work in is tiny. It measures four feet by five feet. Such a size plays no part in constraining my work, but its limitation does guide the types of work I can enter into. My efforts to develop this visual language are now starting to take me in new directions, and I feel this is largely down to the scale of the exploration that I have already undertaken. However, even though my impulses have often told me to switch to other projects, I happily realize that I have maintained an unswerving commitment to my program of work. I have mined out, during this period, a considerable body of knowledge, and produced a consisted number of decent drawings." 🖼️ Paul James' 'Paula' is available online on the Mall Galleries website, as part of our annual RP Exhibition!
“The portrait "Elisabetta" has been painted from “The portrait "Elisabetta" has been painted from life, under natural light and following the sight-size method, whereby image and subject are placed side by side at a distance, in order to perceive the whole. I have been taught this technique in Florence at Charles H. Cecil Studios, where I was introduced to the beauty of drawing and painting from life. During the painting process, I observe the sitter and the canvas from a distance, I walk towards the picture to make the mark and I go back again to observe the image from far away, constantly reevaluating and modifying the impression created on the canvas. This technique is the language of the eye, allowing the artist to perceive and hopefully catch the ever changing subtleties of nature.” are the words of the artist, @ulrikebelloniart. ‘Elisabetta’ is part of our Royal Society of Portrait Painters exhibition, and visible on the Mall Galleries website.
#FemaleArtistOfTheDay 🌸 The artist's perspect #FemaleArtistOfTheDay 🌸 The artist's perspective on her creations is always so unique and inspiring. Here there is Kathryn Kynoch's view of her portrait 'Hannah', which is part of our annual Royal Society of Portrait Painters exhibition: "I painted three portraits of Hannah. As a student at Glasgow University, she needed to supplement her loan and got in touch with me through a modelling agency. At one point in our working together, she also took on the role as a giant snow queen in a semi-permanent pageant. This involved wearing stilts and a most extravagantly designed white gown with embellishments, plus a fantastic head dress. When I saw a photo of the total effect I really wished I could make a painting of it! Hannah had a tight schedule and sometimes travelled straight down to the pageant location from sitting for me. Winter arrived and she gamely staggered up the Victorian tenement stairs hidden behind heavy metal stilts, a huge bag of university work and other necessities. She never fell asleep (some folk do) and was brilliant at remembering and holding the pose. This, of course, was not a commissioned portrait and so there were no external restrictions. I feel that commissioning bodies should familiarise themselves with the artist’s work first, and remember that if it isn’t a ‘good’ painting then it is of little real value. There are many superb photographers about. With a Glasgow School of Art Travelling Scholarship, I spent four months as a copyist at the Prado, Madrid. Sometimes I just walked around and was overwhelmed by the masterpieces by Goya, Velasquez, Titian, Rubens, El Greco etc. I learned that the placing of the body and especially the head in the canvas was very significant in a portrait. I’m also aware of having a good light on the face – dramatic or otherwise and an harmonious colour scheme." The painting is visible online exclusively via the @mallgalleries website or via the link in bio.
Put yourself in the frame: enter our Portrait Priz Put yourself in the frame: enter our Portrait Prize Draw! Visit our website for information and to enter the prize draw. Your chance to win a unique experience leading to a wonderful work of art – a portrait of yourself, a friend or family member of your choice. You can select one of three members of Royal Society of Portrait Painters. Each artist has been elected to membership for the outstanding quality of their work. The winner’s chosen artist will create a head and shoulders portrait using video conferencing and photography. The three RP artists are: 🖼️ David Caldwell, here with his Portrait of Tabatha (woman with brown hair) 🖼️ Simon Davis, here with his Portrait of Daisy (girl with the teddy bear) 🖼️ Emma Wesley, here with her Portrait of Johnson Beharry (man in uniform)
@rugilezukaite.art is one of the artists exhibitin @rugilezukaite.art is one of the artists exhibiting in our annual Royal Society of Portrait Painters with her creation ‘Girl, 2019’ that we can see here with a progress shot. The artist says the following on the portrait: “In October, 2019 I have attended a 4 day workshop in Portrait Painting with Anthony Connolly. We had several models there, but this girl was the youngest one. I really wanted to try to paint her youthful skin, hair and also her teenager’s attitude - something in between innocence and youthful arrogance. I remember approaching it differently than any other painting - more intuitively than methodical. By saying “more intuitively” i meant that i have not constructed the portrait very much, but tried to follow my instincts on responding to colours and shapes hoping that it will result in a portrait eventually. It took my around 3-4 hours to complete the painting.”
@daisy_denning ‘Josephine' is here shown with a @daisy_denning ‘Josephine' is here shown with a few images of its creation on the right ➡️ Daisy’s words on her portrait are: “On meeting Jo (Josephine Dupuy d'Angeac) through my classmates at Charles H Cecil Studios, I was impressed by her unusual untameable beauty - the wild hair and the sensuous eyes that belie her wicked sense of humour. She was great fun to paint even if she would occasionally doze off! As with all my work, she was painted entirely from life under natural light. The portrait is to the scale of life, the canvas is placed alongside the sitter and both are viewed from a distance, by using the sight size method to achieve a visual impression of the whole. This is a practice used by John Singer Sargent and the British School (Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Lawrence) with its origins dating back to the likes of Van Dyke and Velazquez. I was fortunate enough to be schooled in this august way of seeing by my teacher Charles H Cecil and I intend to carry on painting within this tradition, keeping it alive for future generations." 🖼️ The portrait is part of our annual Royal Society of Portrait Painters Exhibition, visible via on the @mallgalleries website!
@owainhunt.art's creation 'Woman in a Knitted Jump @owainhunt.art's creation 'Woman in a Knitted Jumper' (on the left) is displayed in this year's Royal Society of Portrait Painters exhibition, available on the Mall Galleries website. "The painting depicts my sister wearing a jumper that she knitted. I like to think that all of my paintings co-exist in a sort of patchwork of people, place and time. Hence there is a running thread through each painting in my oeuvre. In this case, I had been planning to depict my sister for a long time and, due to private life circumstances, had been thinking about the relationship between mother and daughter. My mother had featured in the painting prior to this one ('The Painter's Mother', portrait on the right➡️ ), so I suppose I was contemplating the passing of time. She is a highly-skilled knitter who passed on her passion to my sister. This shared passion for knitting seemed to be an obvious theme to represent their connection in the painting. Yet, it didn't seem quite enough information to imbue a lot of meaning into a painting. However, as fate would have it, my sister shared the news that she was expecting her first baby, so I set about composing a painting. The news of my new niece, the meaning behind the jumper, and the throw on the right-hand side, which featured in the painting of my mother, gave me enough reference material to tie those overriding themes together. The variety of textures in the furniture covers, were added to frame the figure while making subtle reference to 'The Painter's Mother' (2019). I needed a way to convey the idea of mother and daughter coexisting in different time and place, but within the same world, and with a shared history. It meant that the paintings could stand on their own as depictions of my own relationship with the sitters, but that they could always remain intrinsically tied together. This painting is my most technical to date. Having decided on a traditional composition, I thought it appropriate to explore different methods of the old masters. For the jumper and hair I veered away from Titian and the Venetian school to thicker painting media preferred by Rubens and the Dutch Masters."
#FemaleArtistOfTheDay Kathryn Lowe tells us the st #FemaleArtistOfTheDay Kathryn Lowe tells us the story behind her creation 'Amy by the Lake' 🌸 : "In the painting I was trying to capture something of the magic felt as wind blows through hair on a warm evening. We all recognise the feeling that nature gives us. When I was a young artist I just wanted to paint accurately what I could see. Later I focused on the unique characteristics of each subject. Maybe it would be the pattern of light, or subtle colours - warm and cool - or even a strong engaging look in the eyes. But more recently I've turned my approach upside down. I now try to concentrate on each brush stroke. It's like building a house: you could make the house out of grey concrete slabs, or you could build it using beautiful natural stones or wood and brick. Both houses could be the same shape and serve a purpose, but the concrete one could seem dull, functional and dreary, while the house made of natural materials seems lovely and it draws you in. That's why the building blocks - the brush strokes - matter. " The portrait is part of our Royal Society of Portrait Painters exhibition.
Are you curious about the journey of commissioning Are you curious about the journey of commissioning a portrait? This video on RP artist Simon Davis will give you an idea on the process from ideation to completion. 📣 📣 Would you like to experience it yourself? Enter now our prize draw! Your chance to win a unique experience leading to a wonderful work of art – a portrait of yourself, a friend or family member of your choice. You can select one of three members of Royal Society of Portrait Painters. The winner’s chosen artist will create a head and shoulders portrait using video conferencing and photography. Visit our website for more info.
Today’s portrait is @markentwisle’s ‘Fitou’, which represents the daughter of the artist, Daisy, during a holiday in the South of France in Fitou. Inspired by the architecture and the dynamic composition of the setting, Mark decided to turn into a portrait a photograph taken during his family holiday. This portrait assumes a unique meaning for the artist as it channels his summertime holidays during the ‘70s and ‘80s in the South of France: pine trees, pastel colors and simple places are some of the elements that recall those moments of fun. The same atmosphere - with the same elements - is here represented, closing the circle and reuniting the artist’s youth with his daughters’. Daisy is represented with a pastel pink French-styled dress, standing in front of the building where they were staying during their holidays. The portrait’s creative process started with a photograph - an inspiration of the moment - and continued in the artist’s studio afterwards. This process allowed Mark more time to edit, filter and pick out the best bits of the photograph. The portrait is painted with oil on gesso board. The process to produce the gesso board - according to Mark a “labour of love” - is quite complicated and time-demanding, but it definitely pays off as it always gives a real - sometimes imperfect - feeling that makes the painting incredibly unique. On the overall, the intriguing composition results in fostering the viewers’ curiosity. It is an invitation for all of us to experience the calm atmosphere and dry heat of Fitou in a hot summer day. The portrait is part of our annual Royal Society of Portrait Painters exhibition, visible online via the @mallgalleries website or via the link in bio.
@helendavisonart tells us the story behind the cre @helendavisonart tells us the story behind the creation of two of her portraits displayed in the Royal Society of Portrait painters exhibition: "Although I paint other things, portraiture is such a unique - sometimes profound - experience for both artist and sitter, it will always be my primary love. I work predominantly from life and usually focus on the head and figure alone, concentrating on capturing a sense of psychology without further narrative devices. Recently though I’ve been wanting to push this further with more information about the interior space around the sitter. 'January Blues' (left) is a portrait of my husband and was completed at the beginning of the year. The focus was going to be on his new patterned shirt, but life got in the way and the painting was put aside and forgotten. During a tidy up I re-found it and decided to rework it at home. I don’t usually paint with oils inside our house due to the mess and fumes, but I knew that staying in the studio wouldn’t help with my aim of getting beyond the figure alone. He sat uncomplainingly most evenings for the two or three weeks the painting took to complete, wanting to help me, but also wishing he was in front of the fire and that Spring would hurry up and get here. Early on I noticed that a taxidermy crow sitting on the windowsill behind him could become a subtle motif for the general mood that descends in those post Christmas, dark days of January. The result is a portrait that marks a quiet shift into describing something beyond the sitter. “Blue Glove” (right) was made at the same time and is a self-portrait made in the same space, but from a different angle. Again my aim was to work more with the interior, featuring the dresser behind me that houses our collection of various ceramics, plants, paintings and various odds and ends. The light source is a large south-facing window unfortunately, which means the light moves around very quickly. At a certain point in the day however the light hits the dresser and creates some lovely shadows and geometric lines that is fleetingly really uplifting.”
Today's artist is @stephaniemillsart with her crea Today's artist is @stephaniemillsart with her creation 'Owen', selected for this year's Royal Society of Portrait Painters exhibition, available via the @mallgalleries website. "Owen is someone I had wanted to draw for a while so I jumped at the opportunity for a two day (12 hour) session with him. He is a wonderful sitter with such striking and characterful features that make him really interesting to draw. I tend to tone my paper by hand and for this portrait I chose to use a sheet of Fabriano toned with Paynes Grey ink and then initially set about trying to capture the large proportions and gesture of Owen’s face using charcoal. Once I was happy with the larger proportions, alignments and angles I was then able to work more on defining the specific shapes in order to get more of the likeness of Owen. From there I continued refining the drawing working with a mixture of pencil, charcoal and white chalk. There are usually one or two areas in a drawing that I most enjoy doing and for this one it was capturing the shadow of the curl of Owen’s moustache which helps to lift it away from his face and the detail in his beard."
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Royal Society of Portrait Painters

4 weeks ago

Royal Society of Portrait Painters

What have all of you artists been doing during lockdown? 🎨

Nneka Uzoigwe, exhibiting artist at the RP exhibition, focused on a brand new self-portrait:

“During lockdown I had to move my work from my art studio to my bedroom. At first I felt overwhelmed by having to leave behind the larger projects I had planned.

What I didn’t anticipate, was that this lockdown self-portrait would become the first in a line of exploratory female portraits I had wanted to create this year. It was a breakthrough moment for me, combining all the elements and thought processes I have been juggling around for quite some time, as well as understanding my own painting style more. Having a project like this during lockdown has been amazing. I woke up excited every day, eager to push on with this painting in front of the mirror.

This self-portrait represents a daydream, exploring the twilight zone of one’s day, imagination and solitude. The painting is also a play on the idea of a portrait being a looking glass into all of the different elements a person carries privately with them. It reminds me of a quote from one of my favourite films ‘Stoker’ – “I'm not formed by things that are of myself alone. I wear my father's belt tied around my mother's blouse, and shoes which are from my uncle. This is me. Just as a flower does not choose its colour, we are not responsible for what we have come to be.”

Playing with the spirit of the symbolic, I have elements of home – wrapped in my night dress and partners robe, I have Dicentra (bleeding-heart) from the garden laced in my hair, pears from my fruit bowl. In one pear there’s a secret door, from which hangs a gold thread, like in the tale of Theseus and the Minotaur, leading down to another self who is skipping into the night wearing her Cornflower (blue diadem) and holding her moon in a jar."

Tag us in your lockdown creations, stories, self-portraits or anything that is inspiring you as an artist in these uncertain times! ... See MoreSee Less

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