Tag: england

Sir Stanley Spencer

Sir Stanley Spencer, “The Bridge”, Oil on Canvas, 1920, Tate Museum

Sir Stanley Spencer CBE RA was an English painter. Shortly after leaving the Slade School of Art, Spencer became well known for his paintings depicting Biblical scenes occurring as if in Cookham, the small village beside the River Thames where he was born and spent much of his life. Spencer referred to Cookham as “a village in Heaven” and in his biblical scenes, fellow-villagers are shown as their Gospel counterparts.

Spencer was skilled at organising multi-figure compositions such as in his large paintings for the Sandham Memorial Chapel and for the ‘Shipbuilding on the Clyde’ series which was a commission for the War Artists’ Advisory Committee during World War Two. As his career progressed Spencer often produced landscapes for commercial necessity and the intensity of his early visionary years diminished somewhat while elements of eccentricity came more to the fore. Although his compositions became more claustrophobic and his use of colour less vivid he maintained an attention to detail in his paintings akin to that of the Pre-Raphaelites.

Spencer’s work frequently combined real and imagined elements. As a result, his paintings have a strong sense of narrative even if the subject is not wholly explicable. He painted “The Bridge” in a temporary studio in the Fee School, Maidenhead. The subject is believed to be spectators watching a boat race, probably the annual Cookham Regatta. They are standing on an invented stone bridge instead of Cookham’s cast-iron bridge, although the decorative quatrefoil motifs are taken from the metal version. The Airedale terrier dog lying on the bridge was called Tinker. Tinker belonged to a Cookham resident, Guy Lacey, who taught Stanley Spencer and his brother Gilbert to swim.

Sir Frederic Leighton

Sir Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron PRA, “The Athlete Wrestling a Python”, Bronze, 1877

Frederic Leighton was an English painter and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical subject matter. Leighton was bearer of the shortest-lived peerage in history.  Leighton was the first painter to be given a peerage, in the New Year Honours List of 1896. The patent creating him Baron Leighton, of Stretton in the County of Shropshire, was issued on 24 January 1896; Leighton died the next day of angina pectoris.

Leighton received his artistic training on the European continent, first from Eduard von Steinle and then from Giovanni Costa. At age 17 in the summer of 1847, he met the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer in Frankfurt and painted his portrait, in graphite and gouache on paper—the only known full-length study of Schopenhauer done from life. In Florence at the age of twenty-four, Leighton studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti and painted his 1853-1855 “Cimabue’s Madonna Carried in Procession”, a large-scaled work which originally hung in the Music Room at Buckingham Palace in 1862. From 1855 to 1859, Leighton lived in Paris, where he met Ingres, Delacroix, Corot and Millet.

The supposition that Frederic Leighton may have been homosexual continues to be debated today. He certainly enjoyed an intense and romantically tinged relationship with the poet Henry William Greville whom he met in Florence in 1856. The older man showered Leighton with letters, but the romantic affection seems not to have been reciprocated. Enquiry is furthermore hindered by the fact that Leighton left no diaries and his letters are telling in their lack of reference to his personal circumstances. No definite primary evidence has yet come to light that effectively dispels the secrecy that Leighton built up around himself, although it is clear that he did court a circle of younger men around his artistic studio.

John Craxton

John Craxton, Title Unknown, (Blue Chair)

John Leith Craxton RA, was an English painter. He was sometimes called a neo-Romantic artist but he preferred to be known as a “kind of Arcadian”. His first solo exhibition was in London in 1942 at the Swiss Cottage Café, and his first major solo show at the Leicester Galleries in 1944. His work was seen as part of the neo-romantic revival, and his early pre-1945 work shows the influence of Sutherland and Samuel Palmer, and he was also heavily influenced by friend and patron Peter Watson.

He moved permanently to Crete from about 1970, and switched between living in Crete and in London. The writer Richard Olney remembered Craxton in Paris, en route to Greece during the summer of 1951; “Most nights, John Craxton, a young English painter, arrived to share my bed; we kept each other warm. He moved in a bucolic dreamworld, peopled with beautiful Greek goat herders. Soon he left for Greece.“

He was elected Royal Academician in 1993. Craxton lived and worked in both Chania, Crete and London. His love of Crete extended to his being one of the British Honorary Consuls there. In 2006, Craxton and his long-term partner Richard Riley were united in an official Civil Partnership. John Craxton died in 2009 at the age of eighty-seven, survived by his husband Richard.

Thirteen Senses, “Into the Fire”

Thirteen Senses, “Into the Fire”

Thirteen Senses are a post-britpop band from Penzance, Cornwall. The group released the album “The Invitation” on 27 September 2004, along with several singles: “Thru the Glass”, “Do No Wrong”, “Into the Fire” and “The Salt Wound Routine”, of which the first three have reached the UK Top 40. Their second album, “Contact”, was released in April 2007. Thirteen Senses are the only Cornish band to have a Top 20 single.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Rebecca Bathory

Photography by Rebecca Bathory

Rebecca Lilith Bathory is a British photographer, living in London. As Rebecca Litchfield, she is known for her series “Soviet Ghosts”. She graduated from University for the Creative Arts with a first class degree in Graphic Design in June 2006. Between 2008 and 2010 she studied for a master’s degree in Fashion Photography at The London College of Fashion, for which she was awarded a distinction. In 2014 she was awarded a Techne scholarship for a research PhD degree at the University of Roehampton to research the photography of dark tourism. She graduated with a PHD in Visual Anthropology.

Finding beauty in darkness, poetry and meaning in the forgotten and surreal, imaginary worlds amongst decay. Rebecca Bathory’s artworks breathe life into forgotten historical locations, they reawaken old narratives, find beauty and meaning in their ruin and revive the memories of lost moments in places tainted by the indigenous.

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Tony Cragg

Tony Cragg, “Companions”, Multi-Colored Fiberglass, 2008

British-born, German-based sculptor Tony Cragg rose to prominence in the 1980s as a leading voice in the cohort known as New British Sculpture. Seeking a new, European sensibility, homegrown out of the continent’s neo-avant-garde positions, this group, which also included Antony Gormley and Anish Kapoor, took inspiration from a broad range of practices.

But the awe-inspiring technique of their work—Kapoor’s mirrored surfaces, Gormley’s cubistic distillation of space into three-dimensional grids, or Cragg’s fractal-like complexity—have tended to overshadow their art historical roots. In the case of Cragg, this genealogy forms the basis for the artist’s iconic style, often in surprising ways.

Turner Prize-winning sculptor Tony Cragg emerged in the late 1970s with a bold practice that questioned and tested the limits of a wide variety of traditional sculptural materials, including bronze, steel, glass, wood, and stone. “I’m an absolute materialist, and for me material is exciting and ultimately sublime,” he has said. Eschewing factory fabrication of his works, Cragg has been known to merge contemporary industrial materials with the suggestion of the functional forms of mundane objects and ancient vessels—like jars, bottles, and test tubes—resulting in sublime, sinuous, and twisting forms.

Moby and the Void Pacific Choir, “Are You Lost in the World Like Me?”

Moby and the Void Pacific Choir, “Are You Lost in the World Like Me?”

Great little animation film by Steve Cutts which is reminiscent of the children cartoons of the 1930′s.

Steve Cutts is an illustrator and animator currently living and working in London. His work is fascinating, thought-provoking and usually lends an important message.  His messages range from environmental awareness and animal rights  to the humorous and educational. His art and film is mixed in humor and sometimes a more serious spin of man’s interaction with our environment and how it impacts the world we live in.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Death in June, “Runes and Men”

Death in June, “Runes and Men”

Death in June are a neofolk group led by English folk musician Douglas Pearce, better known as Douglas P. The band was originally formed in Britain in 1981 as a trio, but after the other members left in 1984 and 1985 to work on other projects, the group became the work of Douglas P and various collaborators. Douglas P. now lives in Australia.

Over the band’s three decades of existence, they have made numerous shifts in style and presentation, resulting in an overall shift from initial post-punk and Industrial Records influence to a more acoustic and folk music-oriented approach. They are sometimes considered controversial. Douglas P.’s influence was instrumental in sparking neofolk, of which his music has subsequently become a part.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Rose Sanderson

Rose Sanderson: Painted Book Covers

Inspired by the natural world, especially that which is generally unnoticed or disregarded by others, most recent work focuses predominantly on the fragility of life and representations of freedom.

Seeing beauty in the seemingly ugly,  Rose Sanderson’s delicate, yet expressive paintings of insects, birds and anatomy, aim to provoke in an understated way; producing pieces that are empathetic, fresh and intriguing.

With backgrounds that give a feeling of decay (peeling layers of wallpaper, cracked surfaces; aged and ‘distressed’), combined with fine attention to detail in the subject matter, a vibrant mixture of traditional and experimental techniques are produced. Her use of old book covers relate to the cycles within nature, the subject upon them being part of a narrative; exploring life, death and existence.

Originally based in Bristol, Rose Sanderson has exhibited in a number of Cities within the UK, and others further afield including Amsterdam, Brussels, Munich, New York, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Hong Kong and Singapore. Originally an illustrator, completing her BA(hons) in 2003, she is now a recognised artist within the fine art world.

Robin Davey

Animated Gifs by Robin Davey

Based in London, Robin Davey works as a freelance illustrator, animator, designer and director. Recently he’s been working with Wired Italy,

“Warring Godzillas from this month’s Wired Italia. For a column discussing the shifting symbolism of the franchise from its roots in post-Hiroshima nuclear fears, to the environmental allegory of its current big-budget incarnation.”

– Robin Davey

Henry Scott Tuke

Henry Scott Tuke, “Sunbathers”, Oil on Canvas, Date Unknown

In 1874 Tuke moved to London, where at the age of 16, he enrolled in the Slade School of Art. It was in Falmouth that the young Tuke had been introduced to the pleasures of nude sea bathing, a habit he continued into old age. After graduating he travelled to Italy in 1880, and from 1881 to 1883 he lived in Paris, where he studied with the French history painter Jean-Paul Laurens and met the American painter John Singer Sargent (who was also a painter of male nudes, although this was little known in his lifetime).

During the 1880s Tuke also met Oscar Wilde and other prominent poets and writers such as John Addington Symonds, most of whom were homosexual (then usually called Uranian) and who celebrated the adolescent male. He wrote a “sonnet to youth” which was published anonymously in The Artist, and also contributed an essay to The Studio.

After his death, Tuke’s reputation faded, and he was largely forgotten until the 1970s, when he was rediscovered by the first generation of openly gay artists and art collectors. He has since become something of a cult figure in gay cultural circles, with lavish editions of his paintings published and his works fetching high prices at auctions.

For a more complete biography: https://ultrawolvesunderthefullmoon.blog/2021/01/03/henry-scott-tuke/

Insert Image: Photographer Unknown, “Albert Taylor (Age 21) and Henry Scott Tuke (Age 25), Cornwall, England”, 1883, Vintage Print

Kate Lehman

Kate Lehman, “Sam Linder Portrait”, 1968

Kate Lehman was born in London in 1968 and raised in Paris where her parents pursuits exposed her to the world of the arts. Her formal art education began in 1984 at LAcademie Roederer at the age of 15. Lehmans artistic inclinations led her to the 19th centurys revival of the the Renaissance painting techniques. The emphasis on craft and skillful execution is what attracted her. Thus, she sought an educational environment that would enable her to acquire such skills.

In 1994, she discovered traditional academic training at the Minnesota River School of Fine Art, where she studied under Patrick Devonas for one year and continued her studies with him in New York City. For the past three years, Lehman has studied under Jacob Collins at the Water Street Atelier in Brooklyn where she enjoys continuous exposure to the methods of the past. At her Broadway studio in lower Manhattan, Lehman is painting commissioned portraits and large-scale works.

Kyle Bean

Kyle Bean, “Forbidden Fruit”, Fruit, Metal, Flame

With a slightly sinister and naughty tone, British designer Kyle Bean materializes “forbidden fruit” as a series of dangerously armed produce, bearing unusual self defense mechanisms. Photographed for latest issue of the “Gourmand” magazine in collaboration with photographer Aaron Tilley, Bean has composed five visualizations of the guarded garden greens. Each snack embodies its own spunky and edgy style, while its protective personality seems to divulge secrets about a “dark side” of fruit. – Design Museum

Suzanne Moxhay

Interiors: Photography by Suzanne Moxhay

Born in Essex in 1976, Suzanne Moxhay studied painting at Chelsea College of Art before going on to the Royal Academy Schools where she graduated with a Post Graduate Diploma in Fine Art in 2007. She was then selected for a year long residency at the Florence Trust Studios, London where she developed the ‘Borderlands’ series.

Despite their unsettling nature, Moxhay’s dreamlike scenes have a deep narrative that leaves the viewer thinking about what has been and what’s to come. Whether they’re intending to be a metaphor for life and our existence, a comment about the environment and the state of our planet or just images of an imagined world, they speak out, which is what, paired with their excellent execution, validates them as complex and intelligent photographic works. Created by building and photographing miniature scenes and then digitally blending them with found images, printing with a soft edge is one of the processes used to create the all-important sense of distance.