Grant Milne

One of my favourite paintings is William Wilberforce by Sir Thomas Lawrence, which can be seen at the National Portrait Gallery, London. My art I would say, has been influenced by the painter Lucian Freud. Since creating and featuring in Artist Talk, I have been fortunate to feature some fantastic artists. In this issue we have featured Sue Tilley who was the sitter for Lucian Freud. Sue has also gone on to create some fantastic pieces herself.

Another of my personal favourites and inspiration was featuring the Masterpiece from London’s Courtauld Gallery, which is the iconic painting The Card Players, by French artist Paul Cézanne.

The iconic painting The Card Players, by French artist Paul Cézanne was displayed at the Ferens Art Gallery: Hull Museums, June 2018. Following the Courtauld’s magnificent loan by Manet in 2017, Paul Cézanne’s iconic Card Players, 1892-6,

visited as part of a sustained national partnership. Cézanne’s famous series of paintings of peasant card players have long been considered to be among his most powerful works and this canvas is one of the acknowledged highlights of the Courtauld’s holdings.

Having been rejected by the official Paris Salon in 1870, Cézanne exhibited at the first Impressionist group exhibition in 1874. His work however, was radically different from that of his contemporaries and found little favour with critics and collectors. Following his lack of success in Paris, Cézanne withdrew into relative obscurity at his family home near Aix-en-Provence. Here he formed a deep bond with the landscape and the local people such as Paulin Paulet, a gardener on his estate who is depicted in the painting. The Card Players is a masterpiece of Cézanne’s and his highly original and groundbreaking approach to painting led to him being considered one of the most important artists of his time and ‘the father of modern art’.

My own artwork has been hugely influenced by the work from Cézanne, with the example of my portrait of Cara Delevingne.

Before starting any painting I will use the app ArtRage, which is a digital artist’s studio with a full range of familiar tools that look and work like the real things. It’s a canvas for thick, expressive oils and delicate watercolours, a sketchpad with a full set of pencils and a sheet of paper with a stack of wax crayons all in one. You can view more about the app at www.artrage.com.

December 2018 I completed the painting, which is a portrait study from a photograph of me aged 3. Size: 118 H x 78 W x 4 cm.

I initially use the ArtRage app to complete the painting digitally. Using a Sensu Artist Brush and Stylus it gives me the same effect of oil painting. You do not need however, to wait for the paint to dry. Sensu artist brushes are the ultimate tools for digital artists. They deliver an authentic painting experience on your tablet or smartphone.

It takes three stages for the digital painting. Stage 1 is when I quickly place the paint to cover the basic shapes and tonal values of the painting. Stage 2 is when I added the details of the features such as the eyes and mouth. Stage 3 is the final stage when I add the final details and enhance the tonal values. From this I will then start the oil painting, which takes a longer time to complete and more stages. It is however, a very similar process. The colour will have slight differences.

Future Projects

This summer when I was staying in France, I was inspired by Claude Monet’s painting entitiled I Papaveri. This piece was made outdoors near Argenteuil, in the summer of 1873. The artist wanted to focus his attention on the effects of light and colour.

When I was travelling, I came across Bony which is a commune in the department of Aisne in Hauts-de-France in northern France. I decided to try and stage a similar picture with my parents walking the dog Bromley. Once I was happy with the digital photograph, I then created the piece below. I will hopefully soon get time to paint this onto canvas.

Furthermore, during my visit to the North of France I got the chance to visit The Matisse Museum (Musée Départemental Henri Matisse) This is a museum in Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France.

I got to see some great work by Matisse but I also got to see some work by Alberto Giacometti, such as the Grande Femme 11 Sculpture. They also showcased some of his drawings such as Portrait de Tériade, 1960. I am pleased to say you find out more about Giacometti in the next issue. We will be featuring the Institute of Giacometti, who presented the unreleased photographs of Alberto Giacometti’s works taken by Peter Lindbergh, one of the most important photographers of his generation.

I will also be working on my painting, which is a portrait of the musician Rihanna. You can see the current stage of the painting on the right. This painting is currently unfinished, requiring some more layers to be added to the painting.

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