The Ondaatje Portraiture Prize 2007 is re-awarded - to Tom Coates

"Ulick O'Connor, Irish writer, playwright"
 by Tom Coates RP, PNEAC, PPRBA, PPPS, RWA
Oil, 32" x 38"
NFS copyright Tom Coates

The Royal Society of Portrait Painters Awards Panel has withdrawn the Ondaatje Prize from Michael Reynolds (as announced at the Private View and Awards Ceremony on 25th April and included in the Press Pack) and, as reported in Art Daily yesterday, has re-awarded it to the original runner-up Tom Coates RP, RBA, PS, PNEAC instead for his portrait of Ulick O’Connor, Irish writer, playwright’.

I only found out about this last night at my drawing class after somebody who went to see the exhibition noticed that the prize notices next to the portraits had been changed. I checked the internet when I got home to see how the 'revised' award was being reported and only found any mention of it on Art Daily. So I wrote to my contact at the Mall Galleries who commented as follows.

Michael Reynolds was unanimously awarded the prize by the Awards Panel. Although Reynolds won before, in 2003, the Panel did not think it was against the rules for an artist to win twice. However, a closer inspection of the rules identified that they state that winners are ineligible for the same prize in future years. So the Ondaatje Prize was re-awarded to the runner up - Tom Coates (Mall Galleries Press Office).

So, following the revision of the BP Portrait Award rules it now appears that the Ondaatje Prize is the only major UK based portraiture prize which can only be won once. Maybe the Society could have the Rules for the Ondaatje Award accesible on its website as well as available in a pdf document so that all future entrants (and judges) can see them easily?

Tom Coates is a longstanding and distinguished member of many of the Federation of British Artists societies - he is currently President of the New English Art Club, as well as being a member of the Pastel Society, the Royal Society of British Artists and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.

The Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture is awarded annually by a panel of judges to the painter of the most distinguished painting in the Society’s annual exhibition. It is one of the most illustrious and eminent awards made in the art world today and the winner receives £10,000 plus the Society’s Gold Medal.

Mr Coates’ winning painting ‘Ulick O’Connor, Irish writer, playwright’ can be seen at the Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1 (near Trafalgar Square). The exhibition opens to the public on Thursday 26th April and runs until 13th May. (extract from Mall Galleries Press Release)

Links:

• Making A Mark : Portrait completed in 2 hours wins Ondaatje prize
• Mall Galleries - location and access
• Royal Society of Portrait Painters
• Portrait Artists and Members of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters

Technorati tags: art exhibition, art competition, drawing,painting portrait

Drawing a Head 3rd May 2007

Drawing a Head v2 - 3rd May 2007
14" x 11, pencil on HP paper
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Two more drawings from my Drawing a Head class. I'm having problems uploading images using Blogger at the moment and these have been uploaded using Flickr - where you can also see a larger version - click the copyright line.

The top one took slightly more than half the time and was drawn using a pencil on HP paper. The second - at the end of the post - tries a new approach - it's a black, sepia and white ink drawing on blue grey paper. The idea was to mimic the colours frequently use in classical chalk drawings to see how it worked. Not bad for a first effort - but I think I could improve quite a bit. Don't ask me who makes the white pen I can't find a maker's name on it - but I do know it's gel ink. I think I maybe need to find something a bit more archival - just in case I do a good one! ;)

Drawing a Head v2 - 3rd May 2007
10" x 8", pen and black, sepia and white ink on blue/grey paper
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

An interesting link
Martin Kemp has written a very interesting article at the end of April about 'The Art of Physiognomy' for the Guardian Art and Architecture Blog. His article starts with comments about the way in which people who have committed atrocities get portrayed in the press. The notion that the eyes are a window on a soul and that we can read a person's character from the their face is ancient.

The tradition of western portraiture is founded on the assumption of what I have called the "physiognomic imperative". Physiognomics was the ancient science, first comprehensively outlined in a treatise attributed to Aristotle, that purported to read the "signs" of the face in the context of the human constitution of the four humours - sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric and melancholic (Professor Martin Kemp 'The Art of Physiognomy'.

It's a very interesting article and well worth a read by anybody interested in drawing people and portraiture.

Links:

• Guardian Unlimited: The Art and Architecture Blog

Technorati tags:art , art class, drawing, drawing class, drawing people, pencil, portrait

Frank Kiely - an Irish artist in London

The Luas Picture 2006

53.5 x 78cm £250 unframed
copyright Frank Kiely

Frank Kiely is an Irish born Artist. He graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2002 and in 2006 became an Associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Print-makers. His work takes everyday streetlife as its subject. His prints tend to use graphic linework in black on white and he then picks out part of the subject matter in colour to to accentuate specific aspects of the scene or to tell a story.

After graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2002 Frank exhibited widely in Britain, Europe and USA. As a result his work is now in various private and corporate collections including BP International, Boyle Civic Collection, Clifford Chance, Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, Guardian/PMPA Insurance, the Royal College of Art and the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers.

You can see Frank's screenprints at the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers at the Bankside Gallery. Frank won the Print Quarterly Prize at this year's exhibition for Ox (see below).

Ox
Screenprint, 69 x 57.5 cm, £900 (only 2 left)
copyright Frank Kiely

Frank Kiely lives and works in London and I met Frank when visiting the Bankside Gallery and was greatly intrigued by his prints. This is an interview I did with him.

How did you get started with fine art printing and why?

Prior to Art College I did a portfolio preparation course which included a range of art subjects including printing. We did linocut, woodcut and screenprinting. I remember hating screenprint back then; it was time consuming and the fumes made me feel very sick.

In my second year at the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology I began to to use printmaking as my preferred medium after being required to do some for an assessment. I then applied printmaking to collages & paintings I'd been struggling with in the studio. My collage works still appeared like collages but were now set together on one flat plane. I started to spend my evenings and weekends printing in the print room amazed at what effects I could get. This was the beginning of my love affair with printmaking.

Flower Girl at Covent Garden
Screenprint, edition of 5, 53.5cm x 70cm, £900
copyright Frank Kiely

Why do you print in preference to any other form of visual artwork; what sort of prints do you produce and why do you prefer this method?

When I used to paint I wanted to achieve seamless areas of flat colour. Screenprint is now my favorite image-making technique.

Screenprint is a technique where you build up areas of flat colour in layers to create your image. In the early stages of making an image I first make rough sketches, then I take some photographs. I collage all this together and draw it all up into stencils ready for printing. I love how it all comes together as I print colour after colour until I have a clean crisp finished screenprint.

What are the main influences on your work?

My daily experience of life is a big influence on my work. Everything from art, music and books to conversations etc. I'm a huge fan of many pop artists (Hockney, Paolozzi, Caulfield and others) and I also like impressionism, my favorite being Degas. I love collage based work from Dadaists to recent practitioners like Wangechi Mutu. Currently I have gained a renewed interest in the lithographs of Toulouse Lautrec. I've also recently discovered the work of Erland Hudson. I find her drawings so enjoyable with their range of mark making and in terms of composition.

What do you most enjoy about producing a print?

Everything - so much happens during printing.

Lots of my decisions happen at the printing stage. Since beginning to print, I've built up a wealth of tricks to help me achieve what I want under most circumstances. I usually like to print using large screens and large beds. The machines I use are quite impressive and demand some physical strength.

My favorite part of printing is probably mixing up the colours. I have great fun relating my colours to whimsical references other than the usual, cobalt, burnt umber, cyan, colour names. Sometimes my colours are references to childhood sweets, like bonbon yellow, choc a mint green and raspberry yoghurt. I think I must have a bit of that disorder (synaesthesia) where colour stimulates a sense of taste in your brain.

Which was the theme you enjoyed doing most so far?

I'm one of those people who really enjoys what I'm working on at the moment best. I guess it's connected to my 'don’t look back' philosophy. However, I greatly enjoyed all the work I made in the past at the time I did it, from my work on school to my current city work. I think at the moment I get particular enjoyment from my Gulliver's Travels work. I think Swift was a genius as the worlds he invented are an enjoyable commentary on the human condition.

What were the pros and cons of going to the Royal College of Art?

The RCA had its ups and downs and I do believe in the soundbite “The RCA experience” - you've got to do it to know what it’s really like. I met many interesting people there who've subsequently become close friends and mentors to me. I made a great connection to John Hewitt, one of my lecturers, and his ideas and imagery. We had many talks on 'what is art?' in the context of the 9/11 attacks. Eileen Cooper, another lecturer, always gave sound advice about future careers and, since leaving the RCA, I've found her advice extremely helpful. Alan Smith, one of the senior technicians in the printmaking department, gave me help and guidance in etching which will be with me forever. He taught me how to love and respect this technique of the masters.

What happens next? What are your aims? How do you see your work progressing?

Last year I was elected an Associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers and the 2007 Annual Exhibition will be my second RE exhibition.

In February 2008 Andrew Turnbull and I have a show at the Mark Jason Gallery. We both graduated from the RCA in 2002 and since then we've both been selected for many of the same exhibitions and some of our work is represented in the same collections. One of our big fans is Diarmuid Gavan, who will open the exhibition for us.

Current plans also include finding a gallery in Ireland that would like to host this show. I'm very keen to show all my Gulliver’s travels images together - and I also plan to produce more of these.

I will continue to broaden my audiences by exhibiting worldwide wherever I get the opportunity. I married recently and my wife graduates this year so we plan to do some traveling which might involve taking up a residency in a different city. I'm very attracted by the British school in Rome and hope to be selected to do a project there. I'm also interested in exhibiting in Japan. I'd love to show my work in Japan at the same time as soaking up everything Japanese. I'm very curious as to how this would affect my imagery.

Sounds to me as I may have just found a fifth artist who wants to know more about Japanese prints! ;)

Links:

• Frank Kiely - website
  
• Bankside Gallery, 48 Hopton Street, London, SE1 9JH Tel. 020 7928 7521

Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers: Annual Exhibition 2007

Freefall
etching, aquatint & drypoint 100 x 50 cms 2005
copyright Ruth Uglow

Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers Annual Exhibition

Thu 3-May-2007 to Sun 3-Jun-2007

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A celebration of the very best in contemporary fine art printmaking. The prints for sale will feature an array of techniques and styles from etching and mezzotints through to the latest digital and photographic technologies.

The Society of Painter-Etchers started out in 1880, inspired by the French group of the same name which existed in Paris in the mid 1800's. The notion was brought to England by Whistler, Haden, Tissot and Legros. The latter three artists were the founders together with Macbeth, Heywood Hardy and Herkomer. They were painters, or artists, who made their own etchings, in contrast to those artist-craftsmen who earned their living by copying other better known artists' paintings in intaglio media, mezzotint mainly.

Whistler apparently had a row with his brother-in-law, Haden, and wouldn't join!

The Bankside Gallery website indicates the following to all be Prizewinners

RE Annual 2007 Prizewinners

● Prints in Hospices Loan Scheme Prize
Carmen Gracia RE - New Born
Carmen Gracia RE - In the Land of Milk and Honey
Angie Lewin ARE - Island with Teasels

● University of Wales, Aberystwyth Prize (Purchase Prize)
Roger Harris RE - Spirit of the Wood
Ruth Uglow ARE - Freefall
Judy Willoughby ARE - Shadowy Figure

● Birgit Skiold Memorial Trust Prize
Jean Lodge RE – Portrait V

● Printmaking Today Prize
Peter Lawrence ARE - Transform

● Intaglio Printmaker Prize
Katie Clemson RE

● Print Quarterly Prize
Frank Kiely ARE - Ox

● John Purcell Paper
Roger Harris RE - Spirit of the Wood

● Center for Fine Art Print Research, UWE Bristol Prize
Ted Atkinson RE - Stellae 3

● Society of Wood Engravers Prize
Ian Stephens Hon RE -Above the Lake
John Bryce ARE – Waterways Protest

● Ashmolean Museum, Oxford Prize
Neil Pittaway RE – Window of Dreams

It's now possible to buy prints from the Bankside Gallery online. Click here to view prints available for sale.

The exhibition continues to 3 June 2007, open daily 11:00 - 6:00pm with free admission.

Links:

• Bankside Gallery, 48 Hopton Street, London, SE1 9JH Tel. 020 7928 7521
• e-mail: info@banksidegallery.com

Cliveden, Cookham and Stanley Spencer

Fernlea, birthplace and childhood home of Stanley Spencer

11.5" x 8.5", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencil in Daler Rowney sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Yesterday was a glorious day - sunny and warm with a clear blue sky and excellent light which wasn't dazzling. Coming back from a meeting in Oxford, I decided to try and visit two places near the M4o that I'd been wanting to get to for some time, knowing full well that I'd do neither justice. This was very much a late afternoon 'scout round and decide how soon I want to come back if at all' visit!

So first I visited the National Trust gardens at Cliveden in Buckinghamshire. These are located north of Maidenhead and near the Thames just west of Heathrow. Two sketches, neither of them up to much. I suspect it might look better later in the year - although the wisteria was out and looked great.

I then travelled on to Cookham, which is on the River Thames betwen Maidenhead and Marlow in Berkshire. The Cookham Festival is on at present and finishes on May 7th.

I drew Fernlea, the birthplace and childhood home of Sir Stanley Spencer in the High Street (see top) before walking around the village to see various places which feature in his paintings. I now know where the gallery about him and his work is (and that it's currently being refurbished). I finished off by having dinner at The Ferry - and drew the diners.

11.5" x 17", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Sketches - and more about the visit - will appear on Travels with a Sketchbook when I finish the set from Yorkshire. I think I probably need a new collection for Travels with a sketchbook in the south of England!

Links:

• National Trust - Cliveden, Taplow, Maidenhead, Buckinghamshire SL6 0JA
  Telephone: 01628 605069
• Wikipedia - Cliveden
• Cookham
• Sir Stanley Spencer and his relationship with Cookham