Fine Art Blog

Category: Figurative Art

  • Artist Fabian Perez: painting shady images? definately amazing art

    Argentinian artist Fabian Perez is known for his paintings of shady-looking, mysterious gentlemen & evocative images of women. According to the artist his inspiration is due to his father, who owned brothels and was constantly being hassled by the Argentinian authorities.


    ‘Tinto II’ limited edition canvas by Fabian Perez

    Despite this somewhat rough background, his images are romantic, the subjects are beautiful & Perez paints them with equal parts of awe and respect. The casual observer would never equate the ladies with those that work in brothels, nor the men with those that frequent them – as of course the quality of the art speaks much louder than any ‘story’ behind them.


    ‘Tess III’ limited edition canvas Fabian Perez

    His style reminds me somewhat of the work of UK artist Hamish Blakely, especially his newer work, in that both enjoy showing subjects with dark backgrounds on the canvas, presumably to reflect nighttime or a low lit venue; both also paint beautiful Hispanic women almost always posed facing to the side or away from the artist, as well as men wearing trilby hats low on their faces, so that the face is covered in shadow. I admire both of their works in their own right.


    ‘The Last To Leave’ limited edition on board by Hamish Blakely

    I also find the sculpture recreations of Fabian Perez’s work very stylish. The ‘Man in Black Suit’ – Sculpture is my favourite, the detail in the piece is incredible: the folds in the clothing make it realistic and the pose struck by the character makes me think of Michael Jackson in his ‘Smooth Criminal’ video – in fact Michael is dressed in a suit with a trilby hat on, not a far cry from the characters we are discussing!


    Michael Jackson from his Smooth Criminal video

    Something you may not know about Fabian Perez is that he is a keen martial Artist. Perez says he gained many things through the discipline of Martial Arts & he uses it in his art, by clearing his mind through meditation before painting. For Perez, Martial Arts are not his hobby, they are a significant part of his life.


    ‘Man in Black Suit – sculpture’ by Fabian Perez

    Links:
    Argentina, Perez’s home country

    Argentinian nightlife

    Thanks,

    Vicki

  • Artist Alexander Millar – what inspires him to paint?

    A number of weeks we wrote a blog about newly published artist George Somerville and compared his work to that of Alexander Millar’s, today the blog will focus on Alexander.


    Young at Heart by Alexander Millar

    A professional artist for some 21 years, Alexander Millar was born and raised in a small mining village in 1960 near Glasgow called Springside & in his own words it felt more like growing up in the 1940s than the 1960s! He spent a lot of his youth around the older generation of Scots: men dressed in dark suits, smoking pipes, and burly women in aprons and headscarves.

    His dad worked for British Rail & as a child accompanying him to work, Alexander gained more inspiration for his future paintings as he found the old Railway stations to be very Romantic. Of course the architecture of these stations would have been nostalgic & a throw back to Scotland’s industrial past – this influence is seen throughout Alex’s paintings.


    My Family & Other Animals by Alexander Millar

    Moving to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne after finishing school aged 16, he tried several jobs before becoming a professional artist in 1988. He claims that it was quite a culture shock to move from the sleepy village he grew up in, to the hustle and bustle of the city, as you can imagine! But the city also had its own share of ‘Gadgies’ – (a northern Scottish term for an older generation man) to inspire his paintings.

    Fuelled by his extensive Childhood memories, he had a huge source of inspiration to work from, what is more astonishing is that Alexander is a self taught artist, which is an amazing achievement for any commercial artist.


    Keepy Uppy sculpture by Alexander Millar

    Thanks,

    Vicki

    Links
    www.scottish-memories.co.uk/
    www.accessingscotlandspast.org.uk/
    1960s Scotland

  • Sherree Valentine Daines – art of the British social calendar!

    We thought we would start with some general background on Sherree as this is our first of many posts about this most celebrated of English artists.


    A Day At The Fair by Sherree Valentine Daines (New for Winter 09)

    This remarkable lady celebrated her 30th anniversary as an artist in 2007 by publishing her first art book ‘First Impressions.’ Having had a remarkable career so far, producing nearly 150 different limited edition prints and canvas titles, she certainly shows no sign of slowing down her pace as a published artist!

    Sherree has been televised on numerous occasions, including ‘This Morning’ on ITV with Fern Britton and has won many awards; remarkably she found time to teach ‘life art’ classes for twenty years, run a gallery & be a housewife and mother to her husband and four children!


    Ascot Splendour by Sherree Valentine Daines (New for Winter 09)

    She is well known for her figurative and impressionistic art work by the art community & has exhibited at prestigious galleries such as Tate gallery, The Barbican, The New English Art Club and The Lords Museum. Recently an art critic described her as “The face of modern British Impressionism” and shortly after Sherree was voted the UK’s leading impressionist artist. Other awards she has received include The Laing Landscape and Seascape Competition and The Young Artist of the year award from the Royal Portrait Society.


    End Of A Perfect Day by Sherree Valentine Daines (previous release)

    Renoir and Monet influence can be seen in her work, her focus on light and shadow especially. Her interest in Impressionism and Figuratism maybe attributed to her love of ‘people watching’ & then capturing their emotions and behaviour onto canvas. Sherree also experimented with many mediums while studying her art degree but decided that oil was her favourite because of the richness and texture the paint gave her work.

    Thank you

    Emily

    links:
    Royal Society of Portrait Painters
    The New English Art Club
    Claude Monet

  • Jack Vettriano- From Rags To Riches

    Scottish self-taught artist Vettriano began painting at the age of 21. He paints people, often women or couples in romantic situations. His most famous piece, “The Singing Butler” has made him very wealthy indeed. In fact, he even has an OBE.


    “The Singing Butler” by Jack Vettriano

    As a child, Vettriano worked hard doing jobs such as cleaning windows and was even kept from school by his dad in order to pick potatoes at one point. Now however, he is one of the more affluent and wealthy artists, having sold many thousands of copies of his art work across the globe. Nowadays, he is reported to make around half a million per year from his print licensing alone, and the famous piece “The singing Butler” fetched £750,000 at an auction at Southeby’s.


    “The Temptress” by Jack Vettriano

    His pieces have inspired people from around the globe, although critics have always had a few negative words for him. For example, he was accused of plagiarism when he released “The Singing Butler” as the critics claimed that the figures were found to be taken from a book.

    More information about Vettriano’s career
    The Telegraph report on Jack Vettriano

    By the way, I heard he used to work for Redbridge Council!!

    Thanks

    Vicki