Fine Art Blog

Category: Photorealism

  • Artist Steven Townsend News – releases 1st limited edition Border Collie print in 3 years – set in Deepdale Hause, Lake District

    http://www.fineartblog.co.uk/?p=711

    Steven Townsend is famous in the UK & overseas for his artwork and his limited edition paintings of Border Collie sheep dogs. Many that follow his work & his photo realistic style, know his art is often mistaken for photography & ‘Ready To Start’ is no exception


    ‘Ready To Start’ limited edition print by Steven Townsend
    Available on paper or canvas edition

    For the first time in 3 years, in fact almost exactly 3 years, Steven has released a brand new border collie limited edition called ‘Ready To Start’ & the dog Victor is pictured in between some very famous landmarks in the Lake District in the UK. Just how many landmarks and tourist areas Victor was standing in between, was a surprise…

    We caught up with Steven Townsend and he talks us through the Lake District backdrop in ‘Ready To Start’:

    “This is one of my favourite collies to paint & it features the dog ‘Victor’ the same dog who is in the paintings ‘Victor’ and ‘Tommy’ (‘Tommy’ features Victor but I choose the name Tommy for the painting!) & the dog is about 4-5 years old

    This is a very popular walker’s area in the Lake District, the area is called ‘Deepdale Hause.’ Victor is actually on the cross roads & you can access this spot from so many different areas.


    ‘Tommy’ limited edition print by Steven Townsend
    Available on paper or canvas edition

    Original post on: ‘Tommy’ & ‘Victor’
    http://www.fineartblog.co.uk/?p=215

    At the back we you can see ‘Grisedale Tarn’ (‘tarn’ is a mountain lake or pool) & just off at the left of the picture, behind the first mountain you can see ‘Seat Sandle’ behind it, another very famous landmark.

    Now looks at Victor’s mouth and directly where the pink part of his mouth points, can you see the small mountain path? that is ‘Falcon Crag.’

    Victor himself is looking towards the ‘Grisedale Valley.’ (not pictured)

    Above Victor’s ears in the far distance (and quite greyed out) is ‘Buttemere Range’, or ‘Scarfell Range’ an absolutely massive area (‘Scafell Pike’ is the highest mountain in England)

    Lastly, the hill to the left of the picture, showing in shadow, if you go up that it leads to Fairfield.

    Geologically this painting is spot on, rock for rock. (i.e. its 100% accurate) I thoroughly enjoyed photographing Victor for this new painting and it was a pleasure to be in ‘Deepdale Hause.’ (Steven goes out and takes 100s of photographs, then comes back to his studio and paints from them) There are lots of sheep up there all around (not pictured) and as it moves into the evening, you can look out and see scores of white eyes all around in the fields, as the sheep sit down and move around.” (Steve chuckles)

    We hope you enjoyed this & below is our largest ever set of links from Fine Art Blog to the areas Steven Townsend mentioned:

    Thank you

    James

    Useful links:
    Grisedale Tarn from Deepdale Hause
    http://www.lakedistrictwalks.com/gritfdp.html

    Lake District
    http://www.lakedistrict.gov.uk/

    Grisedale Tarn
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grisedale_Tarn

    Seat Sandal
    http://www.stridingedge.net/wainwright%20fells/M-Z/Seat%20Sandal.htm

    Falcon Crag
    http://www.braithwaite-cottage.co.uk/falcon.htm

    Grisedale Valley
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/crayzy_ray/4942601298/

    Buttermere Range/Lake
    http://www.visitcumbria.com/cm/buttermere-lake.htm

    Scafell Pike
    http://english-lake-district.info/scafell-pike/scafell-pike.html

    Fairfield
    http://www.walkingenglishman.com/lakes2.htm

  • Artist Darren Baker is to paint Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II by Royal Appointment

    The outstanding Huddersfield born artist Darren Baker has well and truly made a name for himself as one of the leading painters of the classical realism genre. So far, Baker’s remarkable portfolio includes commissioned portraits for sports clubs, portraits of major sports personalities such as Lewis Hamilton, Jonny Wilkinson, and Steven Gerrard (to name drop a few), and even portraits of HRH Prince Charles and the now ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair. His art is highly sort after by both British and International collectors, and some of his works even hang in 10 Downing Street and the House of Lords.


    ‘Beckham’s Golden Generation’ by Darren Baker

    So how could the career of this already world renowned artist get any better, I hear you ask? Well I shall tell you. Baker’s portfolio is about to become even more extraordinary as Buckingham Palace has confirmed that he is to paint Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth by royal appointment. This Royal portrait is to be unveiled to Her Majesty this summer as a celebratory party of her 85th Birthday year. Baker will stand amongst a few elite artists to achieve an accolade of this standard.


    Photo of Darren Baker

    Alongside this exciting news, Baker has also revealed his new collection which further exemplifies the immense talent of this artist. Unlike his more formal portraits, this new collection includes stunning figurative pieces that appear much more sensual in tone and relaxed in atmosphere.


    ‘Vision Sensuelle III’ limited edition on canvas board by Darren Baker

    Baker’s prestige as a portrait artist of the sports world has also landed him the role of official artist for the London 2012 Olympics. He will be flying the flag for British art, and is most definitely going for the gold.

    Thank you

    Jessica

    Useful Links

    – Purchase Darren Baker Originals
    – ‘This Is Gloucester’ article on Darren

  • 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

  • Artist Sarah Graham is always losing her marbles?!

    Hello Sarah Graham fans! It seems that almost all of the most popular artists are releasing new work at the moment but this time it is Sarah Graham’s we are loving!

    True to her usual style, she has painted brightly coloured sweets and toys. Her realistic pictures lead people to believe her pictures are photographs or some photoshop creation when of course they are from her own brush!


    ‘Lollipop Carousel’ by Sarah Graham
    (Limited edition box canvas)

    Her unique style is amazing & the attention to detail makes you believe how real they look; Sarah is indeed an extremely talented artist.

    I especially love the vibrant colours and the way she has shown the light reflecting in all the creases of the sweet wrappers.


    ‘Found My Marbles’ by Sarah Graham
    (Limited edition box canvas)

    Wow. This is a very difficult subject to paint because there is so much light refraction in the glass, distorting the colourful swirls inside. However, Sarah has once again painted this picture so realistically, it could be a photograph! She has even painted every single light reflection, making this a dramatic, colourful yet light piece. I think it was a great idea to place them on a reflecting surface, so that the focus on the marbles is increased even more.


    ‘Pick n Mix’ by Sarah Graham
    (Limited edition box canvas)

    This one has to be my favourite! And not because I loved pick n mix as a child! This piece is yet another work by Sarah Graham that is so realistic, you feel like you could take a sweet from the picture and eat it! She has managed to reproduce perfectly the colours and even the varying textures of all the different sweets! Even the sweet bag has been reproduced with super realism; it must be very difficult to paint straight lines on a crinkled bag!

    The way she blurs the background enhances the photographic feel of her piece and draws the eye to the places she wants the viewer to look.

    Links:

    Last ever bag of Woolworths pick n mix sells for £14500!!!
    The History Of Marbles