The Rose Theatre Exhibition - Working Progress

  The exhibition is two days away now and the final preparations are underway. I ordered 500 leaflets, handed out about two hundred, and have just sent an order for three A1 posters. The exhibition lebels were printed out and mounted yesterday, so are not ready to be put up behind the art work. No more to be done on the paintings, a few could be better but there is no use worrying about it now. Time to relax, publicize and enjoy it.

Here are the selected images and labels:

‘A Note from Figaro’ Triptych

2014

Oil on Fibreboard

 ‘A Note from Figaro’ is a triptych inspired by Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. It consists of three wooden panels that depict the moment the Countess is accused by the Count of committing adultery. He presents her with a love note, written by Figaro, suggesting she is having an affair. She declares her innocence, all the while attempting to hide the naked man in the closet behind. Each painting places the viewer in a different area of the theatre, the scene changing ever so slightly with the different perspectives.

 The title ‘A Note from Figaro’ is referencing both the letter within the painting, as well my attempt to capture a single second, or musical note, from Mozart’s masterpiece.

Triptych              £1500

Single Painting    £600

‘The Finale’ Triptych

2014

Oil on Canvases

  Attempting to capture and hold a fleeting moment is one of the hardest tasks in art, and a large part of an artist’s development is learning which precise gesture and expression will speak best to the viewer. With this triptych, I hoped to recount the last few seconds of La Bohème. Areas of the work are left bare, the paint only applied to the area which is of the most import and would command the majority of the audience’s attention.

  ‘The Finale’ is based on the dress rehearsals of Puccini’s La Bohème at the Royal Albert Hall. With the RAH’s kind permission, I was allowed to take photographs with the press and choose from thousands of different shots. 

Triptych            £2000

Single Canvas   £800

Taking Stock

 2014

Oil on Canvas

  More and more we hear cries of concern over the issue of obesity in reports that are usually accompanied by images of fat-bellied people with tape measures around their waists. ‘Taking Stock’ focuses on a moment that almost all women, no matter what size, know very well. It is an incredibly intimate moment which other people were never meant to see. She pulls the tape measure around   her stomach as tightly as she can in an attempt to get a more favorable reading. While she is obviously overweight, there remains something glorious and regal about her.

  ‘Taking Stock’ was a submission to the National Portrait Award and has been featured in the Wilmslow Express.

£3000

 

A Painting of Paintings

2014

Oil on Canvas

Oil on Boards

  The use of photography in painting has, from the very start, been debated and questioned. David Hockney’s book ‘Secret Knowledge’ would argue that artists, as early as the 1600s, were using various types of projectors and any available technology to assist them in creating their paintings. When asked, however, most artists would lie or attempt to conceal it. ‘A Painting of Paintings’ debates this very issue. It is a self-portrait where the artist is considering two paintings in their early stages. They are still lives, drawn out using a grid and copied from the photograph displayed on the screen in the background. This still life is again mirrored in the foreground, where the objects sit ignored and discarded after the photograph has been taken.

 

Triptych                        £1200

Painting on Board        £1000

Still Life                       £200

The Storyteller

2014

Oil on Canvas-Board

  Muriel England taught English to primary school children, inspiring many a scallywag to begin to really appreciate the world of literature. ‘The Storyteller’ is her at her best, a wonderful and bewitching teller of tales. With an arch of her eyebrow, she could capture the attention of a group of children and pull them into her world.

£500

Apple Series

2014

Oil on Canvas

 A three-day study of apples wrapped in newspaper for winter storage. It was an exercise in conveying texture, composition and tone. The video of the process illustrates the progression of the paintings.

Single Still Life  £100

Both Still Lives  £150

Table Cloth Paintings

2014

Oil on Fiberboard

Oil on Canvas

  This series was a study in perspective and the best angles that can be used to convey the same objects in the same positions. The format of still lives is quite a rigid one.

Large            £400

From Above  £300

Small            £200

Early Morning

2012

Oil on Canvas

  ‘Early Morning’, inspired by J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, attempts to capture the moment between sleep and wakefulness where everything seems possible and imagination rules. This state lasts only a few minutes each day but, as in Peter Pan, it makes time stand still.

  ‘Early Morning’ was awarded the ‘Peak District Young Artist of the Year’ award for 2013.

£1500