ABOUT MIRIAM
Miriam Escofet was born in Barcelona in 1967 and moved to the UK in 1979.
The daughter of artists, she grew up surrounded by the rich visual lexicon of art.
She studied 3D Design at Brighton School of Art. The making process was her first love and is still at the core of her art practice. She started painting soon after graduating and has been a practicing artist ever since, exhibiting widely in London and Europe.
Escofet arrived at portraiture after years of exploring many other subject matter and brings to it ideas and skills she has developed over the years in her paintings. She paints mainly in oils, her technique is extremely detailed, applying many layers and glazes to achieve a sense of space and mood.
Her work has been selected several times for the BP Portrait Award exhibition and for the Royal Society of Portrait Painters annual exhibitions. She won first prize at the BP Portrait Award 2018
“I have explored many ideas and subject matter in my work, but the unifying passion in all my paintings is exploring and describing a sense of space, volume, atmosphere and detail, arriving at a kind of hyper real expression of the subject matter.
These same pictorial concerns govern when I am engaged in a portrait, of course the likeness and character of the sitter must come first, but I am as interested in the spatial and psychological depth in the work, as well as an aesthetically successful composition.”
COMMISSIONS
I like to work from life if possible, but also use photography for practical reasons, to document the sitting and allow me to expand compositional possibilities further in the studio. As my paintings take months, they are evolved in the studio.
I like to meet the sitter in their natural environment as it offers a further insight into their character and allows for the inclusion of personal objects in the composition. I am happy for people to input their compositional ideas and equally happy for them to leave that entirely to me.
After the first sitting, I work out a composition for the portrait and prepare a drawing for the client’s approval. Sometimes several possibilities emerge for the final work and I like to explore them all.
Once the composition is agreed I begin the painting in my studio. I might need to come back to the sitter for further life sittings, if they have the time to commit to them, or more photographic references. It takes a few months to complete a painting.
I am happy to travel to my sitter.
I am not currently registered for VAT.
PRICES
Oil
20 x 16 inches £15,000
28 x 20 inches £25,000
40 x 28 inches from £40,000
Pastel
28 x 20 inches £12,000
40 x 28 inches £20,000
Drawings
From £3,000 for a charcoal or graphite drawing to £15,000 for larger more complex mixed media works
EXHIBITIONS
SOLO:
2013 / 14 Miriam Escofet & Jose Escofet, John Davies Gallery, Moreton-in-Marsh
2010 / 11 Jose Escofet & Miriam Escofet, Forte dei Marmi, Italy
2009 Albemarle Gallery, London
2007 Galerie Michelle Boulet, Paris.
2005 Galerie Michelle Boulet, Paris
2001 Albemarle Gallery, London
1998 Albemarle Gallery, London
1997 Rafael Valls Gallery, London
1996 Christopher Wood Gallery, Mallett of Bond Street, London
SELECTED GROUP:
2021 Royal Society of Portrait Painters Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
2019 – 2020 Contemporary Spanish Realism, Hoki Museum and touring, Japan (MEAM Barcelona)
2019 ‘The Albemarle Relaunch’ Pontone Gallery, Lodon
2018 BP Portrait Award National Portrait Gallery, London. Awarded First Prize.
2018 MEAM Museum, Women Artists of Today, Barcelona
2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012 RP annual exhibition, Mall galleries, London
2017, 2015 MEAM Museum, Figurativas, Barcelona
2013 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London
2012, 2010, 2009, 2007 BP Portrait Award National Portrait Gallery
2006 10th Anniversary Show, Albemarle Gallery, London
2005 ‘Maitres Conteporaines de l’Imaginaire’ , Galerie Michelle Boulet, Paris.
2000 ‘Millenium Exhibition’ at the Albemarle Gallery, London
1999 ‘du Reel a l’Imaginaire’, Galerie Michelle Boulet, Paris.
1999 ‘Annual Still – Life and Trompe l’Oeil Show’, Albemarle Gallery, London
1996 trompe l’oeil paintings, Rafael Valls Gallery, London
1994 Saanen Gallery, Gstaad, Switzerland
AWARDS
2015 – The Burke’s Peerage Foundation Prize, Royal Society of Portrait Painters.
2018 – BP Portrait Award, First Prize
Notable Sitters
John Godfrey CBE, High Sheriff of Lincolnshire
Christos Lazari, Lazari Investments
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, for the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office