Granny Gizi and the 151st Annual Exhibition of the Society of Women Artists

I am very happy to post here a photo of my latest piece of work: Granny Gizi (oil on canvas, 36cm x 48cm), which has been selected for the 151^st Annual Exhibition of the Society of Women Artists. The exhibition will be held at the prestigious Mall Galleries in London between June 28, 2012 and July 7, 2012.

Granny Gizi is a portrait of a lovely, elderly lady I look on as one of my grandmas, although we are not actually related. She has had a tough life. She fought serious illness and poverty and was deported from her homeland in Slovakia after World War II. Yet through it all she has always been full of love and compassion. She is a beautiful soul, and I love her dearly.

The last days of Gilda

Here is the poster I designed for The last days of Gilda. It is comic tale of food, sex and survival that will be performed by the talented Gaël Le Cornec at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year from the 4th until the 28th August.

In a shantytown in Rio de Janeiro, amongst chickens and pigs, Gilda cooks, dreaming of love and Hollywood stardom. Men are spellbound, women furious, but Gilda is more dangerous and more generous than they can possibly imagine.

The Annual Exhibition of the ROYAL INSTITUTE OF OIL PAINTERS 2010 & Images 35 the Best of British Contemporary Illustration 2011

I haven’t posted anything on this blog for a long time, but I now have some good news to share.

Firstly, my last painting of Antarma (which I posted here in May, now finished and framed) was accepted for 123rd Annual Exhibition of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters held at the Mall Galleries, The Mall, London, SW1 between December 8 and December 19, 2010.  I am very happy about this, since my work was selected from over 700 entries and will appear alongside works by some of Britain’s leading artists.  The Royal Institute of Oil Painters was founded in 1882 and Walter Sickert and Auguste Rodin are amongst their past exhibitors.  The Private View of the Exhibition is between 2pm to 8pm December 7, 2010. Official opening is at 3.30 pm by Commendatore Antonio Carluccio OBE.  Hope to see you all there!

Secondly, I would like to let you know that one of my illustrations (the book cover for Of Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez) was selected for Images 35 - the best of British Illustration 2011. Images is Britain's only jury-selected, annual illustration competition, judged by a highly regarded panel of industry experts and curated into a beautiful hardback book published by the Association of Illustrators. Images 35 will be available in all major bookshops in 2011 and distributed to over 4000 commissioners and curators of illustration.
Thanks all for reading and have a great weekend!

Antarma in Oil - work-in-progress

I have been inspired by Renaissance portrait drawings and by the works of the Pre-Raphaelites especially by John Everett Millais to paint this portrait of my brother Antarma aka Antarmaggedonassassin. I still have a bit more work to do on the background, on the eyes and the beard but it is close to be finished.

School of Visual Arts NY

I am delighted to announce that I have been offered admission to the School of Visual Arts in New York. I have been invited to begin my studies in the Master of Fine Arts program in Illustration as Visual Essay, with the start of classes on September 7, 2010.

I am glad, grateful and feel animated.

Antarma

I haven't done a charcoal drawing for a while so I thought it was high time to do one and sharpen my eyes and brain again. This is a portrait of my brother Antarma. He is a young, talented musician who plays hip-hop, soulful reggae, writes lyrics and does rapping. You can listen to some of his tracks on www.myspace.com/antarma7. Bless

Being Albrecht Dürer, looking like Björk

When I make a study I try to understand the subject of the study, a fragment of the world, through drawing. When I copy Old Masters’ work my goal is to understand the artist’s process of understanding a fragment of the world. This means I encounter a pre-processed world and I do not need to process it for myself. I believe if I can copy a certain image utilizing the same technique I gain an understanding of the process of comprehension that was drawn upon to create the picture. I actually go through the same process as the Old Master did just from the opposite direction.

Here I copied Self-nude by Albrecht Dürer, one of my favorite artists, which he created around 1505. In making my copy I have replaced Durer’s head with my own (looking a bit Björk-like).