Tim Gustard Exhibition 2022 by beckstones

TIM GUSTARD 14-29 May 2022

how to purchase

The works illustrated are available to purchase SATURDAY 14 MAY from 10am. Please join us and Tim in the gallery from 10am, or alternatively please: telephone 01768 483601 or email enquiries@beckstonesartgallery.co.uk All paintings are in acrylic. Sizes shown are in centimetres and give the dimensions of the actual image excluding the frame. The full catalogue can also be viewed online at: beckstonesartgallery.co.uk We regret that paintings cannot be held on reserve for approval. Please note that paintings are not available to purchase until 10am Saturday 14 May.

We’ve made it in one piece We’ve made it in one piece thankfully. Four years on from the last show and it’s my tenth with Beckstones Gallery. Lots of new subjects and a different way of presenting the work in some cases. I’ve been going to paint on panel for some time, it allows me to submit work to the Royal Institute of Oil Painters for one thing but I like the way it is so immediate without the glass. I’ve also got a new framer who actually has the framing made locally in hard wood, very much more durable frames giving the paintings a more contemporary look. You must forgive me for some of the quirkier subjects but I like to have a bit of fun and I hope they at least make you smile; they come from the heart, it’s not a desire to be different, between Marion and myself we come up with lots of ideas and eventually I’m in the mood to try them out. I must thank Marion for all her help, without her the show simply wouldn’t happen and of course thanks also to Karen and Niki for all their hard work, I couldn’t do it without them either.

Never afraid to push the boundaries We can’t begin to tell you what a delight it is to be able once again to host a ‘normal’ exhibition for Tim Gustard. So much time, thought and effort, not to mention skill, goes into every one of his paintings that it would be almost unthinkable for them not to go on public display and give everyone the opportunity to see them. In 2020 due to the pandemic, we were forced to stage the exhibition purely online which, although incredibly successful, had its limitations and was very frustrating for Tim deprived from seeing his collectors for his much deserved fix of adulation and adoration. So finally it gives us the greatest of pleasure to introduce you to the 2022 Tim Gustard collection - with 30 paintings it is definitely a bumper crop! Despite our best efforts to spy on him especially during lockdown (literally), we had really no idea what was coming our way until the big reveal and well all we can say is wow. It is hard to believe that Tim can improve on perfection but that is indeed what he seems to have managed once more, with a collection of paintings featuring a wide array of subjects some familiar and some not but all with the trademark Gustard greatness.

Never afraid to push the boundaries, his collectors or himself, this body of work will delight and excite you and even in some cases possibly raise an eyebrow! As always the level of technical skill and execution is beyond belief with some pieces taking many hundreds of hours to complete. Silver, glass, porcelain, terracotta and even the most delicate flowers are all portrayed with such remarkable realism it’s hard to comprehend. Textures are so carefully observed and the illusion of real space between the objects so masterfully created, it is plain to see why Tim is regarded as one of the finest still life artists in existence today. In addition to sell out shows at Beckstones, Tim has exhibited at the Royal Institute of Oil painters, the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour, the Royal Academy, the Royal Scottish Society of Watercolour Painters and the Royal Glasgow Institute and has received many awards. Tim has written a series of features in the Artist Magazine and has featured on TV. Beckstones’ association with Tim goes back many years and we still feel privileged to be his foremost gallery and very fortunate to consider him and his lovely wife Marion family friends. We so look forward to this exhibition as it is always the perfect combination of the finest of art and fun and we do hope you can join us.

1. High tea 36.5 x 27cm Acrylic on paper It was a head scratching moment. Marion decided a completely different background was required namely the sitting room feature wall, well at least a portion of the wallpaper. I agonised on how to reproduce the texture, having several failed attempts until it just happened. Then I had to decide on how to recreate the pattern mixing several different combinations until eventually the solution came straight from the tube. Meantime she who must be obeyed had decided this Chinese inspired tea pot should be the subject, it’s made by an American potter but is certainly oriental in its design. She doesn’t like me having an easy time of it.

2. Helleborus orientalis 20.5 x 11cm Acrylic on paper I love growing these; they’re so reliable and seed quite readily, from white through pink, purple and almost black. I seem to have them all over the garden for their flowering season is quite long if the weather is cool and in summer the shiny palmate leaves provide attractive foliage. The little porcelain vase is Japanese Arita ware I think from the early 20th century.

3. The big cheese 20 x 23cm Acrylic on paper This was painted specially for an article in ‘The Artist’ magazine. I have been commissioned to write a series of articles on my work and how it is created and this is article number six. It’s been quite a pleasure doing a special painting for each article and writing about it, I’ve had many articles written about me but these are the first I’ve written myself, and since the Editor keeps asking for another, I assume they’re fairly popular.

4. Strawberry cocktail 22 x 17cm Acrylic on panel I never tire of painting strawberries but I do occasionally get criticised; ‘They’re too perfect’. Now imagine if you would a painting with soft misshapen strawberries in it, the criticism would change to ‘oh he hasn’t got them right’. Actually, because they are grown in such great numbers strawberries tend to arrive in pretty perfect order, I then pick from the punnet the best ones; I’m not likely to pick one that has a soft bit on the side. When I paint Georgian blown glasses as opposite to more modern pressed ones, they are invariably slightly asymmetrical or have a defect like an off round rim, were I to paint them as such again it would be noticed that ‘I hadn’t quite got it right’, in those cases I have to make them ‘perfect’.

5. The claret was brought to book 18 x 25cm Acrylic on panel My friend John Pluck loves to provide alternative titles to my work, he’s quite a wordsmith; an earlier painting that had a book and a glass of claret in it was given this alternative title so naturally I wrote it in my book for future use, this is the painting specially painted to fit the title.

6. A string is strung 52 x 15.5cm Acrylic on paper It’s around 15 years since I did a string of garlic. It was a show in the Cotswolds and the man who bought it purchased 13 paintings altogether, needless to say it was a sell out. Marion knew I wanted to do it again so when she spotted these in the greengrocers she bought them and work began. I approached the background differently and instead of painting on a coloured ground I painted from white.

7. The colour of onions 35 x 52cm Acrylic on paper

Whenever I begin a large painting I spend several days organising it and composing it, this wasn’t going to be a large painting, there were always going to be onions of all colours but as I introduced new items, the painting had to grow. Once I had the onions in place with the flagon I knew it was not enough, there had to be cloth, once the cloth was there it threw out the composition so the jug had to be included, that then required one more onion to bring the eye back into the painting. It was such fun to paint, the colours began to amaze me as I mixed them and used paint colours I hadn’t used for years.

8. The first of spring 20 x 12.5cm Acrylic on paper I love it when the snowdrops appear. We inherited lots in the back garden and planted hundreds in the lawn at the front. We have a large drift of them as I write this. It always amazes me how they keel over with a sharp frost and as the sun warms them they stand right up again, apparently they have a natural anti-freeze to protect them.

9. Just smile 20 x 14cm Acrylic on paper The title is Marion’s, it seems that’s the emotion she felt when she checked the painting over and who am I to argue. My maternal grandfather grew chrysanthemums professionally amongst other things and made a lot of money out of them, I hasten to add that being of a strict Victorian nature the money didn’t come our way. These are I believe ‘spray chrysanthemums’ rather than the single stem varieties that he grew. I enjoyed painting them so much I suspect they won’t be the last ones I paint.

10. Self pouring cream jug (pat. pending) 36 x 18cm Acrylic on paper I know, it’s silly, it doesn’t work but it was fun, I even had to blutack the jug to the wall to keep it in place. This is another in the series of surreal pieces, they kind of just come to mind and I think ‘I wonder if this will work’, either that or Marion comes up with them.

11. Crumbs…..guess who ate the cheese 21.5 x 43.5cm Acrylic on paper Some time ago I painted ‘Marion ate the cheese’ it was extremely popular probably as a result of the title and the story behind it. So I decided a variation on the theme was in order. It is completely different of course but the sentiments are still the same.

12. Portrait of the artist as an old man 16 x 23cm Acrylic on paper Due to its popularity, I wanted to paint a decent self portrait reflected in silver, many of the jugs distort my face. This lovely Danish porringer was made by Jens Sigsgaard. I distinctly remember buying it in The Hague from the tallest (and rather beautiful) Scandinavian lady I’ve ever seen. There was a little elongation of the face and when I had finished it the fair lady Marion remarked on how aged it made me look. The jug is Worcester with my favourite ‘Mansfield’ pattern.

13. The little orchid 25 x 18cm Acrylic on paper As far as flowers go I do like painting orchids, they keep still, other flowers are constantly moving and evolving and dropping off. This little fellow was particularly pretty and once in flower I couldn’t resist it.

14. Mr. Jeremy Fisher 14.5 x 21cm Acrylic on paper I guess it was inevitable that an angler would eventually appear in a painting. Mr Jeremy Fisher has punted his boat (a lily leaf) out into the lake, possibly Esthwaite water near Hawkshead, in order to catch a minnow. But he’s very accident prone and catches a stickleback which pricks his hands and then he’s grabbed by a trout that would have swallowed him but for the nasty taste of his mackintosh and only swallows Jeremy’s galoshes. He’s depicted here eating his sandwich prior to catching the dreaded stickleback.

15. Postie for Jemima 18 x 25.5cm Acrylic on paper

Peter Rabbit was Beatrix Potter’s pet rabbit. She anthropomorphised him initially on letters and greetings cards especially to her godchild. One famous card depicts Peter in a grey-blue postman’s coat trimmed in red dashing along with a bag full of mail; it was only a small step to imagine him delivering the post to Jemima.

16. Toms and tips 28.5 x 17cm Acrylic on paper Yet another idea of Marion’s! She keeps appearing in the studio with one idea after another so that they are almost queuing up. We are both very fond of asparagus especially English asparagus, although the season is extended by imports from as far afield as Peru nothing tastes as good as English. It’s a ‘super food’, full of nutrients and anti-oxidants so hopefully the amount I consume will compensate for my occasional foray into the ‘full English breakfasts’ and bacon butties.

17. If one green apple should accidentally fall 40 x 67cm Acrylic on paper Some years ago prompted by Marion I painted ten green apples sitting on a wall, later I painted nine, since that time I’ve always wanted to paint this sequel. I couldn’t decide how it would work. Should I mount it as normal? This would leave a large blank area of mount, so I decided it would be best to make it an unusual shape, this posed a problem for the framer, my normal image perfect glass is 2mm thick, impossible to cut this way so 4mm laminated glass was sourced and specially cut. I could of course have painted the whole wall but it would have lacked the character of it as it now is.

18. All in their glory 16 x 12.5cm Acrylic on paper The glory of the snow this beautiful spring bulb is called. A carpet of them appears in our garden just after the snowdrops begin to fade. Once picked, they keep growing in the water and by the time I finish they are twice the length they started at.

19. One little strawberry 12 x 12cm Acrylic on panel One of the first paintings I did on panel. I used the wallpaper from our dining room for the background. The jug is eighteenth century Worcester I believe, I’m no expert so I’m never quite sure.

20. In all honesty I believe it’s Kangxi 35 x 22cm Acrylic on paper I used to grow honesty in the garden till I grassed over a lot of the herbaceous borders to make life easier and paint more. This is some of what remains, so delicate I expect it to fall apart each time I get it out. The vase is Chinese Kangxi period very richly painted and another of my favourites.

21. Brown paper packages tied up with string 36 x 51cm Acrylic on paper These are a few of my favourite things. It began with the French silver wine taster; I liked it so much and wanted it to figure in a major painting so I began to add my favourite things to it. I began it in February of 2021 and completed the linen after some weeks and moved on to something else. Christmas was coming and I decided this was the time to finish it so it took another four weeks; the light wasn’t great so I had to choose what part I painted according to the light.

22. Time to unwind 27 x 20cm Acrylic on panel Please don’t imagine me of an evening unwinding with a glass of wine and olives; much though I enjoy painting them I just can’t eat them. I’m more of a whisky and cream crackers man. The decanter is one of a pair that I’ve painted many times. It’s made by the American Alvin company of pure silver overlaid on a crystal decanter and having been annealed the pattern is then cut out of the silver, a jolly skilled job; because it’s hand done each one of the pair has differences which makes them even more appealing.

23. And on the cheeseboard 19.5 x 42.5cm Acrylic on paper I always begin a cheese painting with mixed feelings, on the one hand I love painting the texture of cheese, but as someone who dislikes most cheese and certainly can’t eat it uncooked, the smell is somewhat distasteful and of course it gets worse as the days go by.

24. Cherries and chytra 22.5 x 32.5cm Acrylic on paper A chytra is a utilitarian piece of pottery; in this case I believe it’s Roman, probably used for keeping water cool. It amazes me how it managed to stay in one piece over the centuries, it’s a joy to paint because I do it with larger than usual brushes, scrubbing away to get the texture.

25. What a wonderful cross court volley 32 x 25cm Acrylic on panel I’m finding painting on ‘panel’ a refreshing change. It gives the look of a more traditional oil painting and provides a more immediate experience of the work. I was going to call this ‘Anyone for tennis’, then I remembered my favourite phrase from Dan Maskell in the days when he commentated on the tennis ‘oh what a wonderful cross court volley’.

26. Babap ‘ickle weed 20.5 x 13.5cm Acrylic on paper If you understand the title it means you are the same generation as I am. During the late ‘50s and early 60’s we ‘Watched with mother’ and in this particular case ‘Bill and Ben the Flower Pot Men’, a black and white string puppet programme lasting around ten minutes. The two flower pot men lived in flower pots appropriately and between the two pots grew a large daisy called ‘Weed’ (which was all she ever said). If my memory serves me correctly the flower pot men said ‘babap ‘ickle weed’ to which she replied ‘weeeeeed’. Instead of a game console at three or four years old we had the flower pot men, oh how times have changed.

27. The incidental onlooker 33 x 25cm Acrylic on panel ‘The artist’ magazine approached me to paint something to coincide with Her Majesty’s jubilee, there were times in February when I wished I hadn’t, the cloth drove me crazy and then Covid struck but that just made be tired for a couple of days. The jug was lent by my good friend Jamie Birley and the pearls just remind me of my mother. When I was a boy the Queen always seemed to wear pearls so when my mother wore them I thought she looked terribly posh.

28. The cream of the crop 18 x 22cm Acrylic on panel I once said if I was only allowed to paint strawberries I’d be happy. I could happily do a dozen for each show and not get bored. The vibrancy of the red gives the painting a zing and against the dark background they really stand out, in this case on a panel they are really immediate. They are shown here in a super WMF plated bowl with an eighteenth century English porcelain jug.

29. Game of Thrones 25 x 21.5cm Acrylic on paper Right at the beginning of ‘Game of Thrones’ I noticed the wonderful glasses and flagons they were drinking from; there was a lot of drinking. I Googled and was eventually led to an English company called ‘The Georgian glassmakers’. Not only did they make them for Game of Thrones, but also for ‘Outlander’, ‘Poldaaaark’ and many more. If I bought the real thing they would cost me hundreds of pounds, these authentic copies of drinking vessels through the ages cost me £40 to £60, so I bought a selection.

30. I’ll be with you 32 x 15cm Acrylic on paper ‘What about this’ said Marion as she walked into the studio without knocking. In her hand she held some apple blossom from the hedgerow down the road. She certainly likes to set me a challenge. I was reminded of the song my father used to sing ‘I’ll be with you in apple blossom time; I’ll be with you to change your name to mine’.

1. High tea // 2. Hellebore orientalis // 3. The big cheese // 4. Strawberry cocktail // 5. The claret was brought to book // 6. A string is strung // 7. The colour of onions // 8. The first of spring // 9. Just smile 10. Self pouring cream jug (pat. pending) // 11. Crumbs…. guess who ate the cheese // 12. Portrait of the artist as an old man // 13. The little orchid // 14. Mr Jeremy Fisher // 15. Postie for Jemima // 16. Toms and tips 17. If one green apple should accidentally fall // 18. All in their glory // 19. One little strawberry // 20. In all honesty I believe it’s Kangxi // 21. Brown paper packages tied up with string // 22. Time to unwind 23. And on the cheeseboard // 24. Cherries and chytra // 25. What a wonderful cross court volley // 26. Babap ‘ickle weed // 27. The incidental onlooker // 28. Cream of the crop // 29. Game of Thrones // 30. I’ll be with you

Beckstones Art Gallery Greystoke Ghyll, Nr. Penrith, Cumbria CA11 0UQ Tel: 01768 483601 · beckstonesartgallery.co.uk

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