Fine Art Blog

National Portrait Gallery – ‘ideath’ Painting of a girl on her iPod wins BP Visitor’s Choice Award 2010

A picture of a girl on her iPod has become the annual winner of this prestigious prize sponsored by BP. The piece was taken from the ‘Visitor’s Choice’ exhibition that has been on display in the gallery.

‘ideath’ painting by Michal Ozibko

Interestingly this was voted on by people actually visiting the museum, not by some ‘panel of experts’ as so often is the case & visitors where able to vote via a touch screen monitor outside the exhibition - new for the 2010 competition.

Michal Ozibko, a Czechoslovakian born painter, produced a major piece measuring 65 inches across by 86 inches height & called ‘ideath.’ Nearly 26,000 visitors to the National Portrait Gallery voted & ‘ideath’ received over 15% of those, scooping the BP sponsored Portrait Award for 2010.

You can see the voting results on the Gallery’s website on the links section

Thank you

Jessica

Links:
National Portrait Gallery

Daily Telegraph’s coverage

The Guardian’s coverage

Artist Paul Kenton - New art coming soon!

The team at fine art blog have some exciting news for Paul Kenton fans - he is soon to release 5 new art works!

Paul Kenton is famous for his beautiful cityscapes and his amazing ability to capture movement in different ways. Some call him the ‘screwdriver artist’ because he is known to use one to paint & to achieve the unique finish to his layered on box canvases.

‘Cafe Rouge’ limited edition box canvas by Paul Kenton

In ‘Café Rouge’ it is brilliant how Paul added just a touch of red to an essentially black and white piece, it works really well. Some critics don’t like the range he has done in this style (as opposed to his more colourful work) because it is simply made up of lines and little colour but I think it is clever and ‘works,’ reflecting the busy hustle and bustle feel of a big city.

His previous most recent release ‘City Skies,’ is much more colourful & richer with amazingly warm orange & red tones, showing the true wonder of our amazing capital city. Is it London during the summer at dusk? or maybe dawn? the street is much too quiet to be the evening!

‘City Skies’ limited edition box canvas by Paul Kenton

I can’t wait to see what he has done this time, every phase of new releases there is something different to behold. He is constantly changing his style and surprising us the viewer, so I am sure any Kenton fans will agree with me when I say that I am on the edge of my seat waiting to see them!

Watch this space!!

Vicki

Links:
The Eiffel Tower
The Gherkin

Doug Hyde News - artist has painted the New ‘Time Of My Life’ collection

This March 2010 sees the release of Doug Hyde’s 6th major collection & it’s called the ‘Time Of My Life Collection.’

Click above to view the new ‘Time Of My Life Collection’ (his 6th)

When the images are released, the above link will be updated with images & rest assured you will then be some of the first to see them in all their glory!!!

The set features: 4 sculpture, 5 limited edition prints, a set of 6 miniature prints & for the first time ever Doug has released a painting on glass & it looks amazing!

If you are interested the following pictures are also clickable and will show you the 5 previous Doug Hyde collections:

‘Beware Of The Dog’ limited edition by Doug Hyde
Click above to view the ‘The Hyde Experience’ (his 1st)

‘One In A Million’ limited edition by Doug Hyde
Click above to view the ‘The Smile Collection’ (his 2nd)

‘Secret Garden’ limited edition by Doug Hyde
Click above to view the ‘Reasons To Be Cheerful Collection’ (his 3rd)

‘A Great Night In’ limited edition by Doug Hyde
Click above to view the ‘Yours Truly Collection’ (his 4th)

‘One From The Heart’ limited edition by Doug Hyde
Click above to view the ‘One From The Heart Collection’ (his 5th)

I was lucky enough to attend the previews of these new releases and they are set to be his most coloured and fun packed yet, as usual with any of the top UK artists, we recommend ordering/ pre-ordering early as these limited editions will go very quickly indeed.

Thank you

James

Links:
Introduction to naive art
What is naive art?
Assocation of British Naive Artists

Artist Mackenzie Thorpe to go ‘Self-publishing’ as of Jan 1st 2010

We have heard news that Mackenzie Thorpe is to go ’self-publishing’ as of January 1st 2010 and he will end his publishing/distribution through Washington Green Fine Art Publishers of the UK.

This represents a massive shift in how Mackenzie’s limited edition prints & sculptures will be marketed and the availability of his works, either he will be more ‘findable’ to the average art buyer or harder to obtain as he will now be obtained only few a few select galleries, so potentially this could be good or bad news for the art buyer. How this will effect pricing of his works, i.e. higher or lower! is yet to be determined.

This will also likely effect distribution of his work in the USA and abroad as well. As soon as we have more details we will let you know.

There is a rumour that Washington Green will do a retrospective collection which is normally involves: new brochures, promotion and a ‘tour’ in select galleries of previously published Mackenzie Thorpe work, will have to wait and see.

Thank you

James

Useful Links:

Niave Art Movement
What is naive art?