Autumn 2015
Sunday Times Money Magazine 8th July 2012 Interview with Alexis Gauthier Michelin starred chef and owner of 'Gauthier' , Romilly Street, Soho, London. "I am building a collection of paintings by a British artist called Alan Halliday. He is well established but hasn't yet reached the point where you can't afford him".
Alan Halliday. Charleston. Watercolours. ÂŁ350.
Flora McLachlan. 'Star Ladders' Watercolours. 29 x 29 cms. Framed. £320. As I work on my pictures, I want to evoke a single charmed moment out of time, a magical vision that stills. The scene is our ancient and enchanted landscape, roamed by guardian spirit-like animals, shadowed by woods where the holly springs green amongst the bare oaks and beeches. I am inspired by the quests of medieval romance poetry – the idea of venturing forth into the wild world of trees and thorns, searching for a glimpse of the white Hart. 'Flora McLachlan's etchings and paintings have an unforgettable presence, infused with a haunting sense of poetry. Her work is carefully structured, where echoes of form build distinctive compositions, enriched by her use of patterns from the natural world.'
Harold Mockford. ‘The Big Tree’ Signed and Inscribed and Dated 2003 verso. Oils on Board. £6500. Harold Mockford (born 1932) is a Sussex artist closely associated with the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne. Mockford has mainly worked in oils on board and considers a painting complete when it has reached 'that perfect moment of strangeness', a state achieved by his distinctive technique. He begins with flat plains of colour, leaving no area blank, then leaves the work face down on a blanket until he's ready to resume. Then he incorporates the smudges, smears and textures to build up the scene which first inspired his imagination.[1] His subject is most often landscape, views of the Downs and coast of the Eastbourne area or of the harbour at Newhaven Mockfordwas chosen as a 'National Parks hero' for his paintings inspired by the South Downs. His 80th birthday in 2012 was celebrated by a major retrospective at the Towner Gallery. Nineteen of Mockford's works are included in the BBC's Your Paintings collection.
Baron Gilvan. ‘6 am’. 25.5 x 30.5 cm. Oil on Board. £650. The Baron Gilvan aka Chris Gilvan-Cartwright is a painter, performer and animator. A graduate from Central St Martins (BaHons first class) London, Academy Fine Art Cracow Poland and University of Brighton (MA Fine Art). Winner of the Royal Overseas league Travel scholarship where he painted in India and Nepal. On his return he was commissioned to design the BBC Proms logos for two seasons. He has exhibited widely and performed at the Towner Museum of Contemporary Art and Jerwood Gallery Hastings. His paintings are collected throughout the world.
'Anthony Murphy.
La Belle Serveuse' 61 x 38 cms.
Oils on Canvas. £4800.
‘In the early sixties my father would travel with his family to visit his brother, my uncle, the poet Richard Murphy, living in the old forge in Cleggan outside Clifden. To supplement his meagre income my uncle would sail tourists to Inishbofin in his Galway hooker called The True Light. On the way over you could watch the mackerel dying slowly in the bilges and follow the porpoises. Sometimes we would stop off at High Island where monks had eked out their existence over a thousand years ago. No harbour, just a leap ashore at the foot of a cliff. But the pagan world was present too for Mrs Coyne was definitely a witch. A witch that knitted my geansaí of emerald green that caught every flying fishhook. To my eye then Fodhla (ancient Ireland) was everywhere and the sweet smell off a donkey’s breath a revelation. Today I see how well named was my Uncle’s boat. If a painting of mine holds true light – then I am still aboard, a little seasick, but at least I am not a mackerel. (March 2012)’
'Shirley Trevena R.I. Winter Move' Gouache, Watercolours and Graphite. 43 x 46 cms. £2000. Shirley Trevena has always tried to break the rules of conventional watercolour painting and over the years she has developed a wonderfully loose way of painting using a dynamic palette of colours. Her paintings have strong compositions, unusual perspectives and, above all, strength and vibrancy in her colour compositions.
She has an international reputation and is regarded as one of Britain’s most innovative artists in the medium. She has been a member of the Royal institute of Painters in Watercolours since 1994 and in her first year won the prestigious Winsor & Newton Award. The Following year she won the Llewellyn Prize and in 2007 the John Blockley Prize. She exhibits each year at the Mall Galleries, London and at the Sussex Watercolour Society’s exhibitions. In 2010 she exhibited as a special guest at the 7thInternational Watercolour Festival in Antwerp, Belgium. In 2011 she exhibited as one of 5 international watercolour artists at the St Cyr sur Mer Biennale in the south of France. She is author of 3 best selling books: Taking Risks with Watercolour, Vibrant Watercolours and Breaking the Rules of Watercolour.
John Drummond. ‘Jaipur’. Watercolours.
50 x 60 cms. £1450. John Drummond was born in County Antrim, Northern Ireland in 1920. He studied Printed Textiles under Dora Batty at the Central School of Arts & Crafts from 1947, gaining a National Diploma in Design in 1949. He spent a year studying in Italy, France and Sicily on a Royal Society of Arts Bursary. He was awarded an Honorary Diploma from the Royal College of Art in 1964. From the mid-1950s to the early 1970s he established a studio workshop producing designs for Cole's Wallpapers, Sanderson's, Heather Mills, Worth and Hull Traders. In the USA he designed for Katzenbach and Warren, Philip Graf, Louis W Bowen and Cabin Craft. He designed, painted and screen printed silk panels, murals and decorative glass panels for various institutions, including the Royal Garden Hotel and Vickers Mill Bank Tower in London, the Caledonian Hotel in Edinburgh, the Civic Centre at Rochester, Kent and Pilkington Glass Factory at St Helen's. During this period he was part-time tutor at the Central School, Hammersmith Art School, St Martin's School of Art and he was senior tutor at the Royal College of Art. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art in 1968.
Frances Murphy. ‘Cornwall’ Oils on Board. 80 x 120 cms. £1500. Francis Murphy studied at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts and the Royal Academy. He has been awarded many prizes including the David Murray Prize 1976 and 1978, the Royal Overseas League Prize 1978, the British Institution Prize 1978, the Imperial Tobacco Award at the National Portrait Gallery 1983, the Spirit of London Competition 1985 and 1986 (a prize winner both years). He won several prizes while a student at the Royal Academy. Collectors of his work include Michael Gambon, the actor, who commissioned a portrait and bought other works, and Lord Gowrie, former Arts Minister and Chairman of Sotheby's, and the former British Ambassador to Columbia.
Fred Bromfield ‘Cuckmere’ Oils on Canvas 60 x 60 cms £650.
Fred Bromfield is a London-born artist, who studied at Camberwell under Frank Auerbach and Euan Uglow. He has evolved a spontaneous style which he calls 'expressionist impressionism'. Artist's statement: 'Painting is my raison d'être. For me it must be hand-made and concerned with human responses as far removed from mechanical means and computer technology as possible. Each painting is my immediate response devoid of any pre-conceived idea. My work is primarily concerned with experimental use of paint, and freedom of handling gesture. I've had a life of pleasure, painting, poverty, girls, fun, laughter and joy and consider myself so very fortunate. I would do it all again if I could!
Sir Thomas Monnington. P.R.A. 1902-1976. ‘The Artist’s Studio, Leyswood, Goombridge’.
Inscribed. 20 x 30 cms. £450. Born in London, he studied at the Slade School in 1918-23 and was Rome Scholar in 1923-26. He married fellow Rome Scholar Winifred Knights in 1924. Monnington taught drawing at the Royal Academy Schools, 1931-39, and in 1949 joined the staff of the Slade, whose strong linear tradition marked his own work. Monnington is represented in a number of public galleries, including the Tate, British Museum and Imperial War Museum. He was elected RA in 1938, became its President in 1966 and was knighted in 1967. There was a memorial exhibition at the RA in 1977. From the 1940s Monnington lived in Groombridge, Kent; the local landscape inspired much of his post-war work. Monnington was one of the outstanding draughtsmen of his generation. He had a considerable influence as a teacher (Euan Uglow was among his pupils), and was one of the most effective of the twentieth-century presidents of the RA, turning around the Academy's ailing fortunes.
Mose Tamburrini. 'Mother and Child'. Signed and Numbered Bronze.
Tamburrini was in his eighties when he had his first solo show. When others soon followed, the public rushed to buy his work. "Mosè's direct carvings appear simple, effortless and fluent," says Nicholas Bowlby. "But they were a result of hours of physical discomfort, mental stress and frustration, despair, elation and an uncompromising integrity." Although of Italian descent, Tamburrini was born in Argentina, in Buenos Aires. His father, Nicola, was a master carver who travelled to wherever there was a demand for quality work in marble. He contributed to the opera house in Rio de Janeiro and the family spent time in the South of France. Unlike the modeller or indirect carver, who first produces a maquette in a material such as clay as a pointer to his finished piece, the rarer direct carver works assuredly from the outset with hammer and chisel. Brancusi was Tamburrini's inspiration. "I am for rhythmic forms of line and movement, which requires simplification," he said. Into his nineties he continued producing, in Bowlby's words, "shapes from the first day of creation, unsullied and pure".
Taken from the Independent Newspaper Obituary by David Buckman published in April 2001.
Trevor Newton. 'Moonlit Chandelier, Versailles'. Mixed Media on Paper. 42.5 x 29.5 cms. Framed. £950.
TREVOR NEWTON was born in Lancashire, England in 1959. He studied History of Art at Cambridge University and later became the first full-time teacher of the subject at Eton College. His work has been commissioned, exhibited and sold by Christie’s, published by the Oxford University Press and has appeared in publications as diverse as Country Life, Harpers & Queen, The Independent on Sunday, The Literary Review and The Bookplate Collector’s Quarterly.
Jill Tattersall. ‘Party Dress' Mixed Media on Handmade Paper. 48 x 66 cms £550. I spent much of my early childhood in Germany and Africa – where I read every book on my parents’ shelves, became fascinated by the patterns on everyday objects, and learned to make lino-cuts. We returned to a dark rainy London when I was in my teens. I detested school but was rescued by an inspirational art teacher, Meriel Cardew (wife of the potter Michael), a vivid, kindly figure. Highlights included visits from Michael and from the Nigerian potter Ladi Kwali. At this point I wanted to be a singer, a writer and an artist! I was firmly steered away from these delights into an academic path by school and parents. Somehow I found myself a university lecturer on medieval French literature. Colour is, literally, vital to me. I use paints, inks, dyes and pure pigments to build up intense and glowing but (I hope) subtle colours. Many of my pieces are made on my own hand-cast cotton paper which offers a seductive texture to work on and can be moulded and manipulated. I constantly experiment with materials and techniques. I juxtapose throwaway or reclaimed materials with costly ones such as pure pigments and gold and silver leaf. I often make art out of, or about, things people throw away – the detritus of life. So long as it doesn’t rot, fade or rub off I’ll consider it. I’ve shown work all over the UK and have had numerous solo exhibitions in private and public galleries, especially in the North and Midlands where I lived until recently. I’ve done commissions, workshops and projects and given talks. My work is in private and public collections in the UK, France, Germany, US and Tasmania.
Pete Hawkins.
'Wings' Oils on Canvas. 76 x 76 cms. ÂŁ1400.
I spent my childhood living in many different countries all over the world. After school I went to university and completed a BA honours degree in Business Studies. In 2005 I decided on a change of direction from my advertising job in London to become a full time artist.
Henrietta Stuart Scottish Landscape'. Oils on Board. Double Framed in White. Framed size: 53 x 46 cms. Signed on the Back Board. ÂŁ600.
I paint abstracts in oil on canvas, based on 'things seen': formerly still life, now mostly landscape, in which I aim to evoke time and place, using colour and light. I paint in thin layers, laying paint over paint to exploit its transparency, a technique of which Turner and Titian were both masters. My formative influences included Georgio Morandi, Paul CĂŠzanne, Georges Braque, Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, and Clyfford Still. Morandi is remembered for pointing out that "There is nothing more abstract than the visible world". In my own way I set out to make abstract compositions out of things I have seen, and been moved by: "A world observed and translated - a world created from the natural and the man-made: 'still life' a still life both drawn and felt, as one would admire and caress a wellloved jug, or wonder at the light on the water of the Thames on a calm spring morning" - was how I put it myself some years ago, and it still holds true.
Patrick O’Donnell. ‘Origins 22’. Oils on Canvas.
90 x 90 cms. £1400. "Mr O'Donnell is one of my favourite gay bearded Brightonbased artists" David Walliams "Patrick O'Donnell's oil paintings consist of intense, gorgeous colours that merge into one another. In these maps of luminous colour, jagged lines meet one another in evocations of dramatic beauty..." Hattie Gordon, Author "Patrick O’Donnell’s paintings are brooding landscapes of vivid colour and bold composition. With a nod to the apocalyptic visions of John Martin, Joseph Wright and JMW Turner, they are highly dramatic, with an almost religious intensity. O’Donnell may find inspiration in the solidity of the real world - printed images, personal photos - but his painting is a far more intuitive process. The composition and colour evolves through the application of layer after layer of paint. Perhaps it is this process that gives the paintings their richness - a depth that magnetises and seduces the viewer." Robin Dashwood, BBC
Sara Willett 'Excavations' Gouged Acrylics on Wood. 80 x 80 cms. £1800. China Web, Da Wang Culture Highland, Shenshen, China 2013 Shape Shift, Cinnamon Kitchen, London 2013 Kunstforment der Poundland, Deptford X London 2012 Ligeia, Deptford X, main programme, London 2011 Psychidea, Tinpitch Art at Ganapati, London 2010 Arabesque, Arthouse Gallery, London 2010 One Fine Day, Beverley Knowles Fine Art 2008 Excavaton, The Flea Pit Gallery, London 2007 Recent Work, The Shed Gallery, Norwich 2005
The pallet is more muted and restrained than is usual in the ‘gouged’ series. The circles are gouged by hand, working within a specific predetermined methodology lines from left to right, starting in the top left hand corner until the whole surface is covered. The rhythms, movement and the colours revealed are determined by the imprecise and unpredictable nature of this repeated human action which almost becomes a visual map of the temporal activity.
Simon Desmond. 'Small Abstract 1' Oils and Pigment on Elephant Paper.
30 x 30 cms. Framed. £550. Simon has painted throughout his life and started exhibiting formally in 1998. Over the past few years he has moved into abstraction, continuing with his use of dramatic texture and colour.
‘Abstraction has been a great release for me and is a very pure form of expression devoid of recognisable images that allows the viewer to engage fully with the pictorial space. Although the American expressionists like Rothko and Pollock were important in influencing me it was the smaller scale works by European painters such as Feiler and de Stael, that look at our land and seascape that gave me the real drive into moving away from representational work and concentrating instead on form and colour.’ Simon’s smaller works are predominantly oil on paper which gives a very different intensity than oil on canvas. Oil colour dries very quickly on the absorbent surface of the paper allowing layers of colour to be built up in a short period of time and in Simon’s view preserves the momentum and energy in creating the pictures.
Donna Gray. 'Lido'. Oils on Board. 73 x 63 cms. ÂŁ1600. Based in Sussex, Donna Gray has been painting for twenty years. Over the past ten years her work has been designing furniture and interiors for property developers and private clients. Collaboration with architects BBM Sustainable Design, culminated in a number of awards, Including; RIBA South East award - Winner RIBA Manser medal - short listed. Donna now paints full time, drawing much inspiration from her love of design and architecture.
Judith Kuehne. 'Turquoise Pot and Rose Bud' 29 x 19 cms. OIls on Linen. £580. Judith Kuehne was born in Detroit, Michigan, USA. She first studied painting under Gerald L Brockhurst RA and subsequently at The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. For many years, before moving to France, she lived, worked and exhibited in London. Since 1991 her studio and home have been in the Languedoc-Rousillon, in southern France, firstly in Cabrières and then in Bélarga, both small villages near Montpellier.
David Fawcett. 'Home to a hot cup of tea' Oils on Canvas. 30 x 40 cms. ÂŁ350. I am self taught and work in acrylic. Most of my paintings are based on my observations of people and reflect my day to day life - at home with the family, commuting to and from London, using the tube, working in an office. Body shapes and expressions fascinate me. I am interested in compositions involving a number of people - the tube and commuting gives me a lot of inspiration for this. I try and look for a humourous element in these paintings - a situation which can be identified with and related to. To convey this idea I have found that the title is often particularly important. If the title strikes a chord it really enhances the image. In addition to these "people" paintings I am also very interested in still life painting. This is principally from the point of view of trying to make colours work together and harmonise. If that balance is achieved I think the painting has a tremendous impact. and really holds the eye.