Welcome Spring!

Where have February and March gone! I was just beginning to recover from an injury to my right index finger (all I will say is:  always look before you shut your car door…). Then after spending a lovely week in the snowed Highlands, I got a cold that seemed to come and go uninvited for over a month leaving me exhausted. Still, I managed to make some progress, completing some small pieces and sketches and I also began work on three larger pieces.

My Caledonian themed portfolio continues to increase this year with two commissions. I’m privileged to be painting a Scottish baroness of utmost delicacy, wife of a Scottish Chieftain. I was also touched to be commissioned to paint a posthumous portrait of Margaret Morris, Lady of Balgonie and Eddergoll which will hang at Balgonie Castle as a companion piece to the portrait I painted of her husband, the 30th Laird of Balgonie.

Finally, I also had the pleasure of meeting Professor Sir Godfrey (Geoff) Palmer OBE in Edinburgh for our first sitting. Prof Sir Geoff, lectured at Edinburgh and at  Heriott-Watt Universities and in 1989 became the first black professor in Scotland. Meeting the professor was a humbling experience. He is such an intelligent and modest gentleman with a splendid capacity to engage in conversation. His achievements go beyond the realm of scientific discoveries and reach out to championing equalities and human rights. It’s an honour to be working on the portrait of a gentleman of such moral calibre.

April is almost here and the spring and summer will surely bring the lovely Northern Scottish light that so much love.

What makes a portrait fascinating

Since the days of Holbein people have chosen to be recorded for posterity by a portraitist. Portrait genre was mastered by painters such as Titian, Rembrandt, Velazquez, Ingres and it thrived in Britain with artists like Gainsborough, Raeburn, Lawrence, Gunn, de Lazlo and Sargent.

What makes portrait painting so fascinating and unique? What are some of the characteristics of great portraiture, which makes some paintings stand out and fascinate the viewer over the centuries?

Human beings incorporate both the general features that characterize all humankind and the particular aspects that distinguish each of us. It is the combination of both, the general and the particular, that gives a successful portrait its substance and appeal.

As far as it is possible, the artist must look not only to the exterior topography of a person, as a photograph does, but also into the inner qualities that influence this topography. Both aspects, when combined, give a more accurate interpretation of a personality and are more conducive to a meaningful representation of the sitter.

On a philosophical level, portraiture is a response to the human inclination to think about oneself and others in its multiple combinations. The portrait artist must balance this apparent dichotomy by becoming a bridge between the subject of the painting and the viewer. Effective portraiture considers these relationships and delivers a clear statement, or at least a convincing analogy between the sitter and the painting.

How successful the artist is in achieving this, is determined by many factors. For one part, it is necessary to have deep knowledge of the craft of painting and the ability to use this to the artist’s advantage. The skilful artist who has a deep empirical knowledge of the craft of painting has a great advantage over the one who does not.

On the other hand, this knowledge must be coupled with the artist’s own sensitivity and perception about the individual and the capacity to express this in a way acceptable and convincing to other viewers.

2015

Here we are already, the year 2015. Another year has begun for each one of us to embrace and value the precious time God has given us, using it wisely, lending a helpful hand to those in need, doing good, loving, seeking beauty, feeling inspired and creating.

How time flies!  The Winter months have been rather mild here in Scotland. We have thus managed to venture out more often than usual at this time of the year, instead of composing ourselves with moments of indoor warmth, solitude and reflection (perhaps more conducive to updating my blog!) 

The last two months have been especially busy.  You will start to see new work appearing in my gallery and some interesting articles posted here.  So I look forward to the year ahead and I hope that this year brings good things to you all.

Portrait unveiling at Balgonie Castle - Part II

I am very grateful to Steven Dinnie at The Courier for such a nice review of my work in today's newspaper.

Click on the scanned copy of the article below to enlarge it.

View fullsize

The Courier (Fife Edition), Sat. September 13, 2014, page 5

Portrait unveiling at Balgonie Castle - Part I

Today my portrait of The Laird of Balgonie and Eddegoll was unveiled at a charming event at Balgonie Castle (where the American TV series "The Outlander" was recently filmed). It was a most agreeable afternoon. The sun welcoming us with a warm embrace while 5 musicians from the Fife Strathspey and Reel Society filled the courtyard air with the most delicate tunes. The event was well attended. It was wonderful to meet many friends, the local press and some dignitaries.

Stuart Morris, The Younger of Balgonie, welcomed guests to the Lundie Hall and invited me to deliver a presentation on the making of an oil portrait in the classic style. I used some projections to illustrate some of the principles of classic oil painting and the approach that I had chosen for this project.

Afterwards, I had the honour to assist The Lord-Lieutenant of Fife, who represents HM The Queen, to unveil the portrait, and there was more to come. The Laird of Balgonie and Eddergoll then closed the ceremony with a lovely speech. His words of recognition were very touching for me and I was honoured again with an appointment to his own household as his official portrait painter.

After the ceremony everybody was ready for the delicious refreshments that were served in the Lundie Hall. We walked and talked around in the sunny gardens, while some people enjoyed the cool shade inside a marquee that was beautifully set up for the event. It was indeed a most memorable occasion.

Please see below some photographs of the portrait and the event. 

The Much Honoured Raymond Morris of Balgonie and Eddergoll

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Mrs Margaret Dean, Lord-Lieutenant of Fife, unveils the portrait

The Laird addressing an attentive audience

Certificate of Appointment to the Laird's own Household - Portrait painter to the Laird of Balgonie

Balgonie and myself holding the appointment certificate

The Scottos under the bright afternoon sun in the Castle's courtyard

My son, outside Balgonie Castle, perhaps wondering why these neighbours had not been invited to the party!

Photos by A. Meredew - 2014 - all rights reserved

Poetry

"If any man has any poetry in him, he should paint, for it has all been said and written, and they have scarcely begun to paint it".

William Morris

A visit to Aberdeen

Short visit to Aberdeen last week, the Granite City, solidly grey and clean; a monumental city. On Saturday morning, delicious breakfast at the guest house: kippers and poached eggs with my favourite, Aberdeen butteries (I bought over a dozen to take home with me and they quickly disappeared). Then, visit to the Aberdeen Art Gallery, planning to work in shifts with my wife to look after our toddler, so we can both enjoy some time taking in the artwork. Our dear little son wants to explore alone, be independent.

He enjoys looking around and noticing dogs, birds and other children in the paintings. Children often want to do what their parents do. He observes me painting and sometimes he just sits on my lap while I cover areas of canvas with paint. He fiddles with my brushes and goes to explore a new find in my cluttered studio. A 19 month old boy who just doesn’t miss a thing. I hung a new self-portrait in the hall a few days ago, and my son points at it, looks at me and then asks: papa? That is a very good sign. It seems I got the likeness right.

Was I as inquisitive? I do remember my “museum days” with grandmother Gladys, who would fetch me and then we’d take the bus to Cordoba city centre to visit the art galleries and local museums. I loved the portraits at classic museum don Genaro Perez and at the House of the Marquis of Sobremonte historical museum. I was fascinated by the old faces and elaborate dresses of the old colonisers of the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata (of which Argentina was then part). The same faces one can see today, walking about the streets of Cordoba.

And here we are today, far away from austral latitudes, in Aberdeen, looking at similar features, the images of people who sat for an artist to be painted roughly in the same era, a testimony of the universal character and appeal of portraiture.