Fine Art Blog

Category: Art Styles

  • Muhammad Ali (signed) portraits by his official artist Simon Bull

    London art gallery Picture Perfect Gallery has scooped a national exclusive and will be the first gallery in the country to sell new portraits of Muhammad Ali by British American artist Simon Bull. The portraits are from a series of works that hang in the Muhammad Ali Museum in Louisville Kentucky and are personally signed by Muhammad Ali. Until now they have only been exhibited in the USA.


    (Distant Thunder, original by Simon Bull – also signed by Ali)

    Gallery proprietor Russell said: “This is a real coup for both the gallery and the City, to have an exclusive UK exhibition of perhaps the most iconic man of the last century is fantastic”

    Bull, who in 2009 was commissioned to paint joint portraits of Ali and US president Barack Obama said: “Muhammad Ali is an icon, not just for sports fans, but politically, spiritually and culturally. His story is a noble one and one that reflects and represents the wider human narrative. His life has been and continues to be an inspiration to a global audience. Bringing a selection of these works for exhibition in the UK represents an exciting moment for fans and collectors alike.”


    (Simon Bull meeting Muhammad Ali & Lonnie Ali in their home)

    Others from the series are in exhibition at the Muhammad Ali centre in Louisville, Kentucky in the USA

    thank you

    James

    Links:
    The Muhammad Ali Educational Centre
    Muhammad Ali biography
    Picture Perfect Gallery can be contacted in the UK on 0845 644 7877

  • Artist Paul James – Where Urban Meets Farmyard!!!

    Paul James was born and raised in Leicestershire, where he grew up with a natural talent for art. Encouraged by his parents, he progressed artistically & with the advice of his school teachers, went on to art college to study graphic design. Paul did not complete his course & instead began to sell paintings of vintage cars and neighbours pets…more on his artistic journey in a later post!


    ‘Up The Swanee’
    limited edition on paper & canvas by Paul James

    You may be surprised to hear that Paul James is also a self-taught artist, as he is so incredibly talented you may not necessarily link those two statements! Paul is known for his very realistic, almost photgraphic looking paintings of animals and landscapes. His artworks have gained him a big following in both the UK and overseas such as the USA & Ireland to name but two and it is not hard to see why. His uncanny ability to paint animals in fascinating detail and capture amusing poses & expressions has endeared him to the public.


    ‘Dave’
    limited edition on paper & canvas by Paul James

    Paul has had the amazing success and honour of being published by not one, but several different publishing houses during his career, which just goes to show his continuing popularity and the first class art he is producing. His art takes a great deal of time to paint & we can see this in his great attention to detail, the subtle colours in the animal’s coats & the way you can see each separate animal hair in places!


    ‘Kred Gordon’
    limited edition on paper & canvas by Paul James

    A little known fact about Paul is that he is also a very talented musician and composer, he has even released a CD of his music, as well as performing for live audiences. Now that is what I call multi-talented! Although, it would not be hard to guess that Paul is an artist of many talents due to the versatility of his art, the fact that he can paint a serious picture of a landscape on the one hand and then a humorous animal the next.

    Paul was previously published by Washington Green Fine Art publishers. New For Winter 2010 Paul is now being published/distributed by Demontfort Fine Art publishers…again we will have more on this in a future post!

    Thank you

    Jessica

    Links:

    Heres some tips on how to paint animals

    Click here to view animal painting demonstrations

  • Peter Smith – Enigmatic, stylish artist & leader of the ‘Impossimal’ characters

    Just who is Peter Smith?

    The enigmatic, stylish artist & leader of the ‘Impossimal’ characters that he paints, Peter has always been a mystery to us, how does one man paint such fantasmagorical pictures?


    Photo of the artist

    In future posts we will attempt to delve into the mind of this most talented of naive artists, love and emotion clearly are a driving force for his work, stay tuned as we look to explore and uncover the mystery that is Peter Smith


    Brand new brochure for the latest tour ‘Its A Stripe Thing’

    thank you

    Steve

    Links
    Association of British Naïve Artists

  • 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