Some young painters I loved at the ROI Exhibition 2009

As promised earlier this week I said I'll post some of the painters I loved in the Winsor and Newton Young Painters (Under 35) Artists Section at the ROI Exhibition 2009.

1. Yasunobu Shidami
He won the 1st prize in the Winsor and Newton Young Painters Section. He was a year ahead of me while at Heatherleys and he has set new standards and goals for himself since then. He had a masterful self portrait piled with rich thick paint, you'd just need to step back and squint at the piece to appreciate the facial structure and richness of the colour tones. This piece can be seen below in the picture that shows the cross section of the finalists in the Young Painters section.



2. Stephen Teeuw

I first got acquainted with him when we both qualified as wild card regional finalists in an ITV series called "Brush With Fame" in 2005. He uses a limited palette with very expressive strokes. What I love most about his work is the way he keeps the tones down to nothing more than two and works on the edges to unify them.



3. Natalia Avdeeva

Another Heatherley graduate, she had two paintings in the show and they were just a delight to behold. I don't have any images but she is an artist with a keen eye for colour harmony and composition.

4. Chris Jones

I love this piece, "Fathers and sons(fighting Pekins)" and I love it for the sheer drama, motion and imagination that went into the composing and execution of this finely rendered piece. I just discovered this artist in this exhibition.

5. Johnny Morant
His painting can be seen in the image under Eskov Pavel another painter in this post. It is a sort of rush hour scene of "Villiers Street". I love his work, it is fresh and dynamic. Discovered him in this show too.

6. Eskov Pavel

This painter from Russia won two awards with two wonderful winter paintings. I was talking to Olya who was around to receive the awards on Eskovs behalf and she can be seen below with one of the winning paintings "Museum of Art in St Petersburg". In both winning paintings he handled the scenes in the most masterful way. These can easily go wrong if the whites are not right. Another new discovery.



7. Maryam Foroozanfar

I first discovered her paintings in the BP Portrait award some years back. She is a fine "detailist" with the ability to handle very subtle colour shifts. I just love what she does with paint! Her piece " Bathroom " in the show was a melody of greyed yellows, just loved it!


8. David Pilgrim

A fellow blogger and an artist I got acquainted with in the ROI shows as he has been a regular for three or four years running. His piece below won an award in the show and if I wasn't mistaken, it was one of the first ten works to be sold in the show! I love the freshness of his plein air work and his ability to capture subtle changes in light.



9. Micheal Robson

Another discovery from this show. His work resonates with confidence! I asked him where he learnt to paint so confidently outdoors and he said he just has to work that way, as the weather sometimes keeps changing. He won the Phyllis Roberts' award of £2,000 donated to support and encourage young painters.



and Micheal snapped me with my painting too

"Industrial Synthesis" 15" x 9", Mixed Media on Paper, 2009

This is my entry into Karin Juricks DSFDF, The reference picture had roof tops and I didn't really find the whole picture interesting but a section of it.



So I decided to zoom into this area and make a statement with it. I just loved the various tonal values, the variety of shapes and diagonals, so I played around with them using charcoal, oil base pencils and white acrylic. I fixed the charcoal and Oil base pencil marks then worked over with some white acrylic touches.

Sketch of Sir Donald Sinden CBE at the ROI Opening, 2009

The Royal Institute of Oil Painters 122nd Annual Exhibition 2009 opened yesterday and it was a visual feast! I can't believe I arrived at the gallery around 2pm and ended up leaving around 6pm. That means I was walking around the gallery carefully looking at paintings for approx 3/4 hours. I haven't been feeling well recently and I have needed to slow down but I must say taking in paintings can be very refreshing for the body and soul. I left the gallery soaked with paintings, notes, mental notes and a good feeling. I'll be posting a few of my favourite painters/paintings in the show and also notes on a young lad I met yesterday who won The Phyllis Roberts Award of £2,000-it would be presented annually to encourage and support young painters.




One of the highlights of the day was the award giving ceremony and that's what this post is about. Sir Donald Sinden CBE gave out the awards and he was such a funny man, I couldn't but sketch him while he cracked jokes and made the ceremony a delight to behold!

Sketches on the train, tube and Bus Stop in October IV

More sketches on public transport and even a self portrait, from looking at my reflection the window on the train.

Kezia in sleep mode VIII, Oil Base Pencil, A3 Sketchbook, 2009

Another shot at Kezia in sleepmoode. This time I put her on the chair, as she is learning to sit and watch me paint but it seems she couldn't cope with the boredom and slipped off into sleep mode.



What do I do? Take her to bed, naaaaah.....Quickly grab a quick shot before laying her peacefully on the bed. It's all about ceasing the moment!

Kezia in sleepmode VII, A3 Sketchbook, Carbon Pencil, 2009

Capturing my little princess as she sleeps is not that easy especially when she falls asleep in my hands/shoulders. I decided to incorporate my face into these ones to add some contrast.



I have done these with a carbon pencil B and 2B on cartridge paper.

Winning "The Artist Magazine/Royal Institute of Oil Painters Competition" 2009

This is some good news I've had and will be having this month. This time it would be having the opportunity to exhibit with the Royal Institute of Oil Painters this year at the Mall Galleries, London.
The exhibition opens on the 28th of October, 2009 and will run till the 8th of November. If you are in London during that time, it will be worth viewing!



Summerlight, Clapham Common 24" x 18" Oil on Linen 2009


In Summer this year the advert came out in The Artist magazine for an oil painting to be submitted no larger than 36" x 24" for a winning place in ROI exhibition this year and for a mini profile in the November Issue of The Artist Magazine. I gave it a go and I really thank God, I WON! You can read about it in the November Issue of The Artists Magazine and also the interesting article of 100 years of the Royal Charter of the ROI and what to expect this year!

The painting I entered is called Summerlight, Clapham Common it was painted on a 24" x 18" Winsor & Newton linen Canvas and took me almost a week working on the figures from left to right, making sure each section was finished as I worked mainly focusing on the shapes, drawing and values. My mission was to make sure the figures retained a glowing play of summerlight on them and also that the whole piece showed a vibrant, lively, sketchy feel of the excitement and childlike drama that scenes like this invoke on our memories of childhood and those great times.



Painting showing left to right sequence and underpainting


I discovered I won the prize at the Mall Galleries, as there were 5 shortlisted candidates(James Willis, Rizwan Pradhan, Catherine Gow, James Hirst and Michael Robson) and also 5 judges namely, Dr Sally Bulgin(Editor The Artists Magazine), Peter Wileman (President of ROI), Ian Cryer (Vice President ROI), Dennis Syrett(Past President ROI) and Malcolm Allsop of Townhouse Films. We all came with our paintings and while judging was going on we got to preview the Threadneedle Figurative Prize exhibition which was still being set up. After a while we were called back and the judges said they had unanimously decided that my painting won! All other shortlisted candidates agreed too!



The whole set up in my studio including reference picture/palette.

More pictures during presentation(below)



Judges, shortlisted candidates and winning painting




Dr Sally Bulgin (Editor, The Artist Magazine), Peter Wileman (President, ROI) and Adebanji

African Headgear III, 16" x 20", Oil Base Pencil/Charcoal Dust

This makes number 3 in my current Afro Headgear series.



The model here is my great friend Esta who I have used many times in my Afro Series too.

I have used Charcoal dust for the broad tones and Compressed Charcoal for the darker tones. Then I used Oil base pencils for the details and lines on Norfolk Cartridge paper.

Sketches on the train, tube and home in October III

More sketches of people. I also managed to get in Josh and Kezia into one of them (above) morning!

"The 22nd Anniversary", 24" x 20", Oil Base Pencil, 2009

This is another commission completed and delivered with the client pleased. The clients were their children and they gave it as a gift to their parents!



I have used medium, soft and extra soft oil base pencils on a smooth artistico fabriano watercolour paper. I really liked the smooth absorbent texture of the paper and the way the oil base pencil marks appear on the paper.

Sketches on the bus and train in October II

Just one page spread from last week!

Bath Experience V (Winning the Future Bath Plus Plein air Award)

My experience at Bath continues with the Private view of the 154 paintings at The Octagon, Milsom Place . I got there to find out that one of my paintings were missing from the main display walls, it was only when the awards were being called out that I found out I had won the Future Bath Plus Plein air award! Now that really made me feel great! Once in a while these things happen they serve as great motivators! I really thank God for the opportunity! This was the first painting I did in Bath! The experience of painting this piece wasn't that straightforward either!



Around Theatre Royal before the rain, Acrylic on panel, 40cm x 20cm, 2009 SOLD



I arrived in Bath, after a three hour journey on the Coach from London-Victoria, not knowing where to go because this was my first time in the city, but I had a handy map and located the gallery where I needed to get the place allocated to me. The lady at the reception told me my place was The Theatre Royal. She showed me how to get there and wished me well. The only sad thing on this day was there was no dramatic light in the air, it was a typical British grey day and there were even signs of rain in the air! But I kept a positive attitude, got to the venue and started looking for where to position myself. Finally I got a place of refuge from the oncoming showers and I got everything out only to find my easel had loose nuts and bolts, and to make it worse they were missing! So I had to abandon painting for the moment and begin shop searching. After a few miss hits, wrong turns and not listening well to the directions given, I finally got to a nice hardware shop and the man was terrific, he really helped me find all I needed and now I could go back to the scene and paint! I was so lucky to pack light, because if not, by now I was already feeling exhausted!



Picture of the scene


At the scene, the action started! I painted for the next 3-4 hours just trying my best to fine tune my painting, fighting the changing weather, hunger and trying to answer too many questions asked by people passing by. I used Acrylics, the New Winsor & Newton acrylics and they were a delight! The work was done on a Masonite panel I primed myself with gesso and a grey acrylic mix.



My palette, painting and general set up



Enough said! The pictures will tell the rest of the story!





Adebanji with The Mayor of Bath




My winning painting with the lucky RED DOT!





Serious Business, painting in progress





Adebanji with Bonnie Helen Hawkins and Richard Hall, Director of Future Bath Plus

Bath Experience IV, 2009

This is another post on my experience in Bath. This scene actually caught my attention on the morning I was about to leave Bath. Before this encounter I had made up my mind on what scenes I was going to paint BUT then came the morning...........I was walking up to Queens Square and Lo and Behold! A beautiful shade caused by the morning sunlight hit against the lofty trees around Queen's Square and the effect of this shadow created a wonderful warm/cool shadow on the adjacent building of Bath Academy. Wow!!! I must have been heard by a few passers by, but they must have been thinking... has he lost it or what is the wow factor about? But, only me, my camera and the scene understood the mystery that would captivate me till I got back to London to paint this scene!



SOLD


I tried my best to recall all the feelings, sights, drama and mood of this place back in my studio but sometimes it can never be the same. Even an Alla Prima painting on the spot may not be able to justify my quest! But nevertheless I did what I could in oil on canvas 60cm x 30cm. You can see results in the painting above.

This was the second painting I put into The Bath Prize. Stay tuned for the post on my winning painting in the Plein Air Category- It was done just before the rains broke out......................could a grey scene have anything to write home about?

Bath Experience III, 2009

This is another entry on my experience at Bath. I produced this painting after enjoying a good long walk just taking loads of pictures of the beautiful City of Bath at night.



For this painting, it was the Abbey and it just had a beautiful glow at night, even my little camera I had in hand couldn't give the feel and majestic presence this sight manifested. I tried my best to capture that feel on canvas with paint and the painting shows my struggles to interpret it to the best of my ability. This was done in oil on canvas, 40cm x 40cm.

This painting is one of the 3 works I submitted into The Bath Prize, a rather unique competition that encouraged artists to paint different scenes of Bath. I won the prestigious Bath Future Plus Prize for the Best Plein Air painting, I'll be posting on that later this week. So stay tuned! If you are in the City of Bath, you can view the exhibition of the all 153 works at the Octagon, Milsom Place, Bath

Sketches on the train, bus station and coach in October I

More people!!! I couldn't resist sketching the old man above on the left. He had the dream features for an addictive sketcher!

Daniel, 30" x 30", Oil on Linen, 2009

This is a recent commission I have finished, with the client pleased and the work delivered!



I have worked with oil in a technique that employs glazing, starting from thin oil layers to heavy layers but still keeping the transparency.




Below are some detailed shots