The Story Behind 40 works that changed my career-40

NUMBER 40-RAIN, RAIN and RUSH HOUR

Rain, Rain and Rush Hour,  24" x 20", Oil on Canvas, 2011

And finally at last, The 40th work that has made my career is this painting- I was inspired to take this one on because it was a had crowded figures, reflections and rain-three elements I really love in urbanscapes!

 I worked completely from a photo in the studio but all the time I made sure I didn't fall prey to the abnormalities that pictures have.

 To really get into the mood of this piece I visited the venue at Cannon Street in the morning during the height of rush hour on a week day and the spirit of the whole place was just buzzing! You could see city workers all determined to get to work with their umbrellas, soaked and fizzing through the station to the streets adjacent to the station. I just stood their for almost 2 hours observing, making mental notes and taking loads of pictures, close to 700! 

When I got back to the studio I had a hard time looking through to see the one that really resonated with my spirit! It was difficult to find the one that really had a balanced composition and a good focal point. I thought, if I didn't get the right one I would need to start editing the pictures to make  it work. This process of selection is really part of the creative process, even before the main painting starts. Actually the painting starts when the idea and scene is viewed and conceived. 


I painted this piece for the Affordable Art Fair last year at Battersea, and I was pleased that just before the exhibition started, a couple saw in on the the gallery website and showed so much interest but waited till they saw it in the flesh. Once they saw it in the flesh they fell in love and carted it away to Canada!

SPECIAL QUOTE

I find it hard to understand after all these years of painting, I still go through a struggle and the climbing of a great mountain of doubt, before I embark on a new painting-the worries, the fear, the procrastination......then everything dispels once the work begins..."-Adebanji Alade

The Story Behind 40 works that changed my career -39

NUMBER 39- THE CIRCUS PANORAMA(BATH)



On the 21st of September I got out of my bed while the sun was shining with a glorious morning light and I ventured to get one shot(painting) of the Circus done. I arrived at around 10.15am at an interesting spot right in the middle of the park at the Circus and decided to paint a good view of an area in which the sun had illuminated part of the grass to almost a fluorescent yellowish green, with Brock Street peeping through!
While getting ready to paint, a resident from the Circus buildings came down to meet me with a cup of tea and said, "May the sun shine for you all day long"- I gladly had the 'Cuppa' and got down to work, at about 11.38am I had completed my first panel and then I thought the composition looked a bit incomplete. So I brought up another panel and joined it to the first and at around 12.36 in the afternoon I completed my first two 6" x 8" panels of the Circus. I was happy with the result until one passer by said, "it's good you are doing a panorama of this....." then I thought, OK, a panorama....I think I'll try...? Let's see what a third panel would like, by this time I had to turn my position to capture another part of the Circus, linking the third to the second. I then continued as the day went on, linking the third panel to a fourth panel and fifth and then finally sixth panel-all the while I had to keep moving in circles while the light light kept changing as the day went by but it didn't alter my determination to get the whole 6 panels to all join together to produce one solid piece! I finally finished around 6pm and one of the residents around the circus who had seen me paint all day entertained me to tea and snacks! It was a wonderful day!




Adebanji presenting the Circus Panorama during the Bath Marathon Exhibition at the Bath Gallery




This painting marked a great highlight during my Bath Marathon- and it was one of the first pieces to sell at the opening. It was so much in demand that the gallery did a Limited edition of it, I remember having to sign and write a personal quote on some.




The Circus Panorama, 48" x 6", Oil on Board, 2010



It has not been an easy experience of writing about these 40 works to celebrate my 40th birthday but I am happy I have only got one more post to do on this and that will come tomorrow after which I'll be able to continue my normal pots of work that I have currently been doing. It's been a wonderful experience looking back but now it's time to face the future-Hope I can get on to each canvas or paper with the excitement and enthusiasm which always fires me to produce works that would add colour, joy, love, wonder, and all the wonderful emotions to my life and the people that view and collect these works!




Adebanji painting the Circus Panorama (Picture by Jess Loughborough)



SPECIAL QUOTE
"Nature suggests ideas for interpretation, the artist supplies ideas of how the interpretation is to be made."-Edgar Payne from his book Composition of Outdoor Painting

The Story Behind 40 works that changed my career (36, 37 and 38)

NUMBER 36- A LITTLE GIRL IN DAZZLING MORNING LIGHT

Gracie, Graphite/Oil Base Pencil, 13" x 9", 2009



This drawing is part of a study I did for a an oil portrait commission of this little girl for her parents. Why I love it so much is that it was just a way for me to experiment and find out different parts of her features that worked well for the final piece. Among all the sketches and studies I did before the main portrait, this is the one I liked best but wasn't the one her parents chose. They settled for a more frontal view of their daughter. Looking back at this piece which is now part of my collection, I really feel it opened up for me a great revelation-which was the ability to really investigate a little more detail in a face with my best medium of all-GRAPHITE- I always feel the potential and celebration of the ordinary pencil gets overlooked. I think colour is powerful and for some reason gets more attention than black and white pieces. But I must say I love What the pencil can achieve and I believe a day will come that it would only work in black and white!






NUMBER 37- AFTER THE RAIN II

After The Rain II, 48" x308", Oil on Canvas, 2011


This is a painting I did that was supposed to be a commission but the clients didn't have sufficient funding to give a go ahead. But since I had really given myself so much into doing it by taking almost 1, 500 pictures of the scene and trying my best to understand Rupert Street in Soho- Also with the encouragement of Enid Lawson, I went ahead to do this painting. My mission was the same as the requirements of the clients, to capture an evening scene at Soho, Rupert Street, with neon light signs, reflections and anything that reminds us of London-I decided to add the Rickshaw driver!

The reflections on the wet pavement was my key point in this piece. I had to study the work of Gustave Caillebotte, who painted a lovely scene of a Paris Street in Rainy Weather.
But what really got me absorbed in this piece was just going there whenever the rain had just fallen and there was a feeling of dusk in the air. There's so much power in just observing a scene and taking it in. It really helps in communicating the scene effectively when painting the scene in the studio.






NUMBER 38- RAIN AND REFLECTIONS, LONDON STREETS

Rain and Reflections, London Streets, 10" x 8", Oil on Board, 2011


This is another painting that deals with reflections, it's smaller just 10" x 8" but still communicates the same feeling. I really liked this one because although it was painted entirely from a picture in the studio-I really feel it had the qualities of a plein piece and the reason is, I painted it very quickly in Alla Prima as if I were just painting it outdoor. This piece sold in the Affordable Art fair last year at Battersea.


SPECIAL QUOTE
"I really feel whenever one embarks on a painting, one really needs to be totally absorbed in the piece , so that nothing will deter ones attention and energies in making the piece exactly what it was supposed to be when the idea was conceived or envisioned.- Adebanji Alade"

The Story Behind 40 works that changed my career 33, 34 & 35

NUMBER 33- AROUND THE ROYAL THEATRE BEFORE THE RAIN

Around the Royal Theatre Before The Rain, Acrylic on Board, 40cm x 20cm, 2009

The painting won the Plein Air Plus prize at The Bath Prize in 2009


Now, if there's been any single painting that has opened up so many opportunities for me during my career so far, it is this little one! It was the year 2009 and things were starting to go from bad to worse. I kept on wondering how I'll be able to pick up the magic that the year started with, but everything seemed bleak. I remember walking into Borders Bookshop on Charing Cross Road and I didn't even have enough money to buy an art magazine, I decided to sit there and read it through. While checking through this art magazine, I saw an advert on The 2009 Bath Prize. There were a couple of Prizes at stake and one of them was The Plein Air Prize worth £1,000 cash for the best plein air painting that depicts life in Bath. I thought to myself, " I think I can do this!" We were to travel down to Bath and get a random location picked for us. I was allocated a place called The Theatre Royal. It was my first time in Bath and I didn't even know how to get there. I asked directions from the gallery people who were organizing the competition and they gave me directions and I finally got there. But unfortunately it started get all dull and grey and I almost regretted going. But I had to encourage myself to just paint it as it was. I was using acrylics to do my plein air paintings at the time and because I had to avoid the rain, I pitched under a shelter and painted with all my heart, an unpretentious view of The Theatre Royal just before the rain.

I submitted the work with 2 other paintings I did from pictures. But when the competition results came out it was this little painting that won the prize! I won £1,000 cash! It meant the world to me! Not only that-A lady walked up to me during the exhibition and asked me to explain my painting process of the scene. I did that with the most vivid illustrations and enthusiasm. At the end she decided she was going to buy the painting for £750! Now that was it! I also sold one of the other paintings I put in for £1,375 ! It all happened so fast that I had to keep pace with the sudden breakthrough. This led me to sell many more paintings in Bath. It helped me get so much publicity in the papers and the local magazines! I ended up being a judge for the next competition and I had a solo exhibition with 212, 6" x 8" plein paintings all of Bath-and most recently selling my works in an auction in Bath! It's been an incredible love affair and ever since going to Bath in 2009, I always long to get there again and do more paintings of the glorious world heritage city! The story won't be complete without mentioning Mr Mike Porter, a man who simply believed in me and encouraged me to keep at it! I haven't looked back since then and it has been a wonderful experience all because of an opportunity that opened up and the willingness to take it at the time it opened. I am saying this because many artists are out there working so hard but never seem get recognition. It can be that way sometimes, but the key is never to give up or stop practicing because one day that preparation and hard work is going to meet an opportunity that has been waiting for the right moment and that will only happen to those who have keep going and keep believing!!!







NUMBER 34- RUSH HOUR VIII

Rush Hour VIII, Oil on Canvas,24" x 20", 2011

This is one of my Rush Hour paintings. It's not so crowded but it shows the movement, depression and utter frustration of being in these situations. I snapped this scene with my camera on one of the days I was on the escalator on the Jubilee line at London Bridge. I decided to paint it as part of my group exhibition last year with Enid Lawson Gallery on London Paintings. I was so happy when a lady who introduced herself as Margaret Thacthers Nurse bought it and said it captured everything she felt about these situations in London! She took the painting off with her to South Africa! I 'm always thrilled by these people who can strongly relate to what I had in mind while doing the piece.

I really love crowded scenes, I tend to treat each figure like a still life object. It's always nice to see how they come out in the end, as I used a shape by shape technique to complete it. The process of this painting can be seen HERE




NUMBER 35- ON THE WAY TO BATH RUGBY HOME GAME

On The Way To Bath Rugby Home Game, Oil on Canvas, 36" x 24", 2011


The story about this painting can be seen by clicking HERE. It was posted in March and in order not repeat everything I have said so recently I have decided to have the link HERE.

I said I wouldn't write about it but I can't resist....so ....It's a painting I did when on a visit to Bath I saw all these Bath Rugby supporters on their way to an afternoon home game, I must have taken about 50 pictures that afternoon but settled for this one because of the balance in the composition. It 's also a painting I did with only 4 colours to keep the harmony alive. The colours used were Terra Rosa, Yellow Orche, Prussian Blue and Titanium White.

I was exhibited at the Bath Prize in 2011, it didn't sell at the auction but a week after on a day when Bath Rugby were playing it was put in the shop front and inquiries started flooding in and a couple showed interest and now have this painting with them included in the crowd! I ended up going to their home to include them in the painting.


SPECIAL QUOTE
Preparation does not mean mastery of the facts. It does not mean knowing all the answers. It does not necessarily mean achieving the consensus. (Former British minister Margaret Thactcher remarked that " consensus is the negation of leadership.")It means putting yourself in a better position to succeed."-John C. Maxwell from his Book "Talent is Never Enough"

The Story Behind 40 works that changed my career (31, 32)

NUMBER 31- FACE OF HOMELESSNESS, CHARING CROSS ROAD

The face of Homelessness Charing Cross Road, 36" x 48", Oil on canvas, 2011


This guy is one of the people I randomly meet on the streets. Sometimes it's just impossible to resist asking if a sketch could be done when one sees a face with so much character like this guy has. I saw him way back in 2009, I think, and after asking politely he agreed and that was it! I sat down to sketch him. He looked through my sketchbook later and said the sketches were quite impressive.

Last year I decided to do a big painting from a photo I also took of him, it's the first time I have done a "big head"- but I experienced so much freedom and liberation while painting it that I'm so sure if I have a bigger studio-I'll be doing more large works like this. Sometimes I would stand back and just pick up heavy colour mixed with Liquin Impasto and just paste all over the work.

This work made me know that we can never say we can't do something without trying! I was inspired by my studio mate Alex Fowler, as he was working on some large landscapes from smaller studies he had done from San Fransisco, that I said to myself, "I think I can do something like this!"-I mean something large. So I did it and now I am just waiting for more opportunities to do do large heads.....this one gave me so much buzz!



NUMBER 32- THE FESTIVAL BEGINS

The Festival Begins, oil on canvas, 40" x 30", 2011


This scene is taken from The Edinburgh Festival! It's such a wonderful time to be at Edinburgh....I didn't know I was going to see this scene when I traveled there last year. But when I saw it I took some pictures and decided to paint this one for the Edinburgh Art Fair last year and it was exhibited by Enid Lawson Gallery.

Works with crowded figures always give me a buzz, painting this one was a great experience because I was able to close in all the individual people and treat them as if they were people I knew. The architecture in the background was another highlight and as much I wanted it to show, this piece was all about the people and the buzz of the Festival! Controlling the reds was another challenge but I just managed to reduce the intensity of some spots with specks of green.

Completing this piece gave me the confidence to try an ever bigger one of these scenes, I always relish the challenge to push it a bit further!

SPECIAL QUOTE
"If you want to be successful, you must focus on what you can do, not what you can't"-John C Maxwell

The Story Behind 40 works that changed my career (29, 30)

NUMBER 29- St Paul's Panoramic View

St Paul's Panoramic View, 44" x 20", Oil on Canvas, 2011 (Commission)


I was pleased to get this commission for two reasons, the first being, I just really love St Paul's as a building, I think it is architecture at it's magnificent best! Then secondly because it came from the fact that the client had seen my painting of The Royal Crescent and loved the way I handled the paint in various degrees of thickness, that they had the confidence that I would be able to take on St Paul's in the same manner. The client was very detailed with exactly what they wanted, they had an image stitched up from google -maps, it had where they wanted a bus, a taxi, the people, the New Change building etc. To really get me absorbed into this work, I must have taken up to 500 shots of the whole St Pauls area before coming down to one which I produced a sketch from, once the client saw the sketch they were pleased and I went on to complete it.

The final email I got from them read thus:

"Dear Adebanji,

We finally picked up the painting on Thursday as we have been so busy. It was great to see it with our own eyes, and we are very pleased with it. Keep up the good work and I hope we meet again.

Kind regards,

R & S"

It's not every time that one gets a commission that really suits one's passion, but this one really did!





NUMBER 30-After the Rain , London Streets

After the Rain , London Streets, 30" x 24", Oil on Canvas, 2011


If I could, I would say this is my best painting till date, but I can't, I believe the best is yet to come! I think it encapsulates everything I love in a painting-Crowded figures, movement, reflections, bold colour and subtle greys. I did it for the Affordable Art Fair Exhibition last year at Battersea and it sold straightaway!

The client took the time to email me these few words

"Hello Adebanji,

We bought your picture "After the Rain" at the Affordable Art Fair and
I just wanted to let you know that we are absolutely thrilled with it.

Good luck"

Now, when a client is thrilled with a painting, it pays more than the money!!

SPECIAL QUOTE
"Decide what you want to do with a particular painting, Keep it down to one thing and communicate that thing so strongly that even the man who couldn't see properly would feel it was done!"-Adebanji Alade

The Story Behind 40 works that changed my career (27, 28)

NUMBER 27-"FACE OF HOMELESSNESS KINGS ROAD"

The Face of Homelessness Kings Road (Scarlet Solitude) 16" x 20", Oil On Canvas, 2011



The whole story about this one can be read HERE- It was a painting I did entirely from a sketch of a Homeless guy I saw on Kings Road last year. I used the Zorn Palette (Whiite, Cadmium Red, Yellow Orche and Ivory Black) and it was done Alla Prima. I worked in full concentration as I didn't want to miss any bit about his face that I was trying to recall from memory. The greatest temptation was not to overwork it but just leave it fresh with all my first-hand strokes.

I still look back at this piece in awe at the sudden striking of inspiration that can hit us as artists at times when we are just fully absorbed in our work. The day I painted this piece was just one of days I never really had a plan but at the back of my mind was a deep desire to capture this guy, whose face speaks a thousand words. I even wrote a poem on this piece which can be read HERE

The work sold at the Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition Last year at the Mall Galleries.




NUMBER 28-"CREEP"

Creep, 120cm x 80cm, Oil on Canvas 2007


This painting is of one of my great friends. I met him years back while working at St Mungos He was a brilliant guy who could make anybody happy with his funny jokes and expressions. What brought about this painting was his story of his participation in the Angolan War. He was a soldier and had some weird experiences on the battlefield, these experiences would often haunt him at night while alone in his room. He would explain vividly how these affected him. So I decided to put this experience in to a painting. I decided to call it Creep- As they were kind of creepy feelings coming in the form of dark shadows to cast their effect on his mind.

He really loved the work. I did too! One of my good friends from Secondary school who saw my talents at an early stage way back from 1983-89 bought the work from me. He said it encapsulates a powerful mood that affects every human being. The effect our past has on us!

The picture below shows me in a reflective mood too, with the painting.

SPECIAL QUOTE
"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

The Story Behind 40 works that changed my career (25, 26)

NUMBER 25-Evening Light, Leadenhall Market II, 24" x 30", Oil on Canvas, 2011

Both paintings featured in this post are two of my best spots in London. Leadenhall Market is an amazing structure and has its beauty at anytime of the day. I love it best at evening light and having painted it once before I decided to embark on a larger piece for a group exhibition I had last year at Enid Lawson Gallery.

The piece was done entirely in the studio and I worked from a photographic reference. To see some steps on how I developed this piece from start to finish, click HERE from a post I did on it last year.

The beauty of painting this piece was that I enjoyed the mystery of the figures evolving from the underpainting as can be seen from a picture of how it looked during the process below

It sold during the exhibition and is one of my best studio pieces till date.





NUMBER 26-Winter Grey Afternoon, Sloane Square, 24" x 18", oil on canvas, 2011

This painting was done entirely outdoor over 2 sittings. I remember it being so cold in January last year when I did this piece that I developed a stab of cold in the back even with all my layers of warm clothes. Click HERE to see some progress shots of this painting in progress and my ice breaker footwear from Cabelas

This piece sold at the Chelsea Art fair last year- it was one of the first paintings that sold that year and the beginning of a very successful year for me!


SPECIAL QUOTE
"Whether you are working indoor or outdoor, from photos or from life-You need to know what you want to do with what is in front of you. Don't just copy what's there, be in control, determine what you would like the composition to be like, what to take out, what to add, what to exaggerate, what to downplay, what to add more contrast to and what to soften.....the list of things you could do could go on. Just remember nobody is going to go back to the picture of place you painted to cross check, be an artist and not just a painter"-Adebanji Alade

The Story Behind 40 works that changed my career 23, 24

NUMBER 23-ART THERAPY

"Art Therapy"(self portrait) 24" x 24", Acrylic on Canvas, 2009


I remember at the time I did this piece I was doing a bit of research on Art Therapy and I used myself as the model to depict the surge of hope and spark of life that Art Therapy can bring into an individuals life. The individual may be finding it hard to cope with various negative symptoms and experiences in life, but all of a sudden the individual is able to recover, reconnect and get revived through creating art, self expression and a renewed sense of belief in ones self through creative means.

Most of the strokes in the dark areas of the background in this painting are the negative words and experiences that I personally struggle against, while the calligraphic strokes in the brighter areas are actually positive, motivational and inspirational words that have helped me remain focused in the most difficult times and experiences in my life. It was the first time I felt completely liberated to introduce my technique of "calligraphic mark-writing into the drawing" in a painting. I didn't care what people were going to think, I said this work is purely about my experience and my life, so I am free to do what I want. For this whole piece I used the new Winsor and Newton Acrylic on canvas. I developed this piece with a "sketchful" force and tried to keep that vitality throughout till the end.

I actually did this work for an Exhibition called "Art Liberating Lives" - It was an exhibition organised by the Sue Ryder Care at the Mall Galleries -which was an uplifting and eclectic collection of works inspired by the theme, "Liberation". They were to use the commission on sold works to support the Sue Ryder Charity.

When the day of the Private View came up, the place was packed and everyone was out there being inspired by different artist's take on this theme. I was going to travel to Japan in a few days after the Private view and I knew I wouldn't be around to pick up my work if it didn't sell, but I was thinking to myself, "who would buy such a Self-Portrait and put it in their home?" The clock was ticking and everyone started going home after a great event and I still buzzed around with a beaming smile talking to artists whose work I admired when I lady walked up to me and said, "Is that you in that painting over there?". I said, "yes"-She asked if I could explain a bit about why I did the work and what inspired me. My heart was beating, I was like, "This IS MY CHANCE!" So I took a deep breathe and started mumbling the words.....I saw her eyes glow...she connected with it and said it costs a lot of money though...£1,250! I said in a low tone, "But it's worth it!"- She looked once and then twice and concluded that for her to buy it, I'll need to to do a demo of how to paint for her little 9 year old girl who loved art too. I said I'll do that with all pleasure, I told her I'll come over with my little boy too, and she agreed and that was it, the work was sold! I didn't need to worry about anything while travelling to Japan and when I came back I fulfilled my promise by doing a demo that they all loved, She hosted me and my son for the day in a stately house at Sevenoaks ans I spent the whole day having fun!!!

Looking back, I learned always do work that I connect with wholeheartedly, work that gave me a buzz and work that really makes me happy first! It's not always easy in these days of market and sales driven themes but I think its a good thing to keep being sincere to ourselves and our deep philosophy of why we do what we do. When it is done well-then others would connect to the work with that same buzz we had as artists at the beginning! I also learned that while at exhibitions, one has to keep a happy and cheerful outward appearance . Nobody is going to connect with an artist with a gloomy, shy, long or tense appearance.






NUMBER 24-EMOTIONS V

EMOTIONS V, Oil based pencil/Sanguine & Sepia dust, 8" x 10", 2009


This work falls into category of works I did when exploring peoples emotions when they are in different circumstances faced by situations that produce a kind of reaction from them.

The guy I used for the model here was one of the great buskers around, these are the guys that play on the trains and tubes to make music while the commuters drop a few coins in appreciation. I worked with him at St Mungos and he was very much interested in art too, he worked in coloured pencils.

I started this by ghosting the dust (sepia and sanguine) on self sanded-watercolour paper and then adding details with the oil base pencils and graphite(mechanical pencil).

This work brings back good memories because it was one of the only two works I was able to sell on Ebay. Ebay never did me much help but I got so much experience from working on a daily basis, something that instills discipline in to us as artists. Working to post daily never suited my style because to meet the deadline of the day, I'd have to rush some pieces which never gave me the satisfaction I get from working over and over again on a piece for days and weeks.

SPECIAL QUOTE
"Be guided by feelings alone. Before any sight and any object, abandon yourself to your first impression. If you have really been touched, you will convey to others the sincerity of your emotion." (Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot)

The Story Behind 40 works that changed my career ( 21 and 22)

NUMBER 21

AFRO XXII

AFRO XXII, Charcoal/Graphite, 10" x 8", 2009



This is one of my drawings that show the beauty of natural hair. It's one of my favourites! The model I used was a very good friend of mine. Because it was purely one of those pieces that I chose to do, I altered her facial features a bit to suit the purpose of the piece. Sometimes I do this especially if the person doesn't want to be seen as the model or if I don't want the person to be seen as the model, in this case the later was the reason. Again this work celebrates one of my best used techniques when it comes to drawing. It's my charcoal wash technique, which I create on a self-sanded watercolour paper to create textures. I mix charcoal dust mixed with water to start off the piece as if it were a pure watercolour, the charcoal dust acting as a pigment. Once I get satisfied with the forms and shapes in the build-up, I then introduce graphite for the areas where I would like to add more texture and do a bit of writing into the drawing, a technique I call "calligraphic mark-writing into the drawing"-Looking closely at this drawing would reveal words that have to do with the beauty and way I felt while working on this piece.

Funny enough when I posted this piece a while back. Someone made a comment, that the work looks exactly like her. Now that's what happens when faces get altered. I couldn't agree less.





NUMBER 22

RUSH HOUR I

RUSH HOUR I, Oil on Canvas, 24" x 36", 2006

This was a painting that was going to launch me into a world of the unknown! Looking back at this first Rush Hour piece brings me pure joy! I was only out to experiment and this is one reason why artists just need to keep trying new things. This was a time in my life that I was experimenting a lot. Just trying to find out things that were interesting to me and things that gave a buzz! Naturally I always found myself getting intrigued by peoples faces, this is what keeps me sketching people on public transport all the time. But then, I also love to see a variety of faces at once, I love pictures that reveal so many different faces and people in one solid composition. I buy all kinds of books and magazines to influence my artistic appetite and I remember buying this book illustrated by Glenn Farby. In one of his illustrations for a magazine cover for the "PREACHER" Number 56-which can be seen HERE I saw loads of faces of different people all merged into one whole setting, and I was like, "WOW! I love that! I wish could do a painting that would have all those qualities!" So, this image kept on 'haunting' me, and then one day on a hot summers day probably in 2004 or 2005, I was at Clapham Common Station in London and I was approaching the escalators when I saw all these people during the peak of the Rush Hour period. Thank God I had my digital camera, it was the first one I had ever used, a 1.5 mega pixel. I just snapped this- "almost out of focus image" of the scene unaltered. I never knew I was going to use it for a breakthrough painting until I got inspired by Glenn Farby.

I remember painting this piece for close to 6 months, I used to work full time at St Mungos and I had just married 2 years from then and had my first child a year from then, so it was a busy time for me, yet I wanted combine all this with my art, something that I couldn't just leave. So I'd paint a little go to work, paint a little, go to work...and I think this continued for 6 months. When complete, I put it into the Patchings Competition organized by the The Artist Magzine and it won the Daler Rowney Award, which entitled me to £250 worth of Art Materials from Daler Rowney! Now that was so encouraging, and I got publicity in The Artist Magazine but the work didn't sell.

Then a year after I discovered a lady called Sharmina Karim! Now, sometimes you just happen to meet the right people. She was organizing a competition to give exposure to upcoming artists in the contemporary scene. The good thing was that the selected works would be exhibited at the Barclays Headquarters at Canary Wharf! And I thought to myself, "Even if I don't win the any of the Prizes at least I'll get some exposure!" So I gave it a go and the work was selected, and for the first time in the UK, I was going to exhibit a painting that would SELL!!!! The exhibition day came and even before I got to the venue on The Private View Day, the work had a red dot on it! I was happy, I remember going with my wife and my baby son and they so proud of me! I must say I was happy with myself! That first Rush Hour painting sold for £875, It meant a lot to me then but continuing this series has seen some works go as high as £7,500! But there's always a beginning! So, the greatest thing I keep reminding myself everytime-whether I'm up or down is to KEEP ON KEEPING ON! There's a lot of power in PERSISTENCE, I mean real DOGGED PERSISTENCE, I mean sometimes, you want a change so badly, you are ready to sacrifice anything to get the results you are looking for. Well, that's enough said on this piece!


SPECIAL QUOTE
"There comes a time when you will be the only one who can judge your paintings. you can not rely on what has been done in the past or what is accepted now. It is up to you to set your own standards and understand how to judge"-Angela D'Aleo from her BOOK, The Purpose of Painting

The Story Behind 40 works that changed my career 20

Number 20-The Royal Crescent bathed in the spring sun




This painting of the Royal Crescent in Bath was done for my Bath Group show in May last year at The Bath Gallery. I went to Bath to do a study in graphite and then I took loads of pictures too. I came back to London with all the reference material and embarked on this piece, which is my largest painting of a place in Bath.

It is such an incredible structure and I love it, ever since I did two (here and here) plein air shots of it during my Bath Marathon. I have always longed to do a bigger piece and this was my chance, although painting the details was a nightmare!

It some how didn't sell during the exhibition but it fetched me a commission of St Paul's in the same format(A couple visited the exhibition and just loved the way I painted this structure that they asked if I could paint St Paul's the same way) for 3K and then I was happy to later hear that this piece sold for the same price after the exhibition was over! It was indeed a double blessing!

The Royal Crescent bathed in the spring sun, 48" x 20", Oil on canvas, 2011

The Sketch

Adebanji with painting at the exhibition

Adebanji sketching the Royal Crescent

SPECIAL QUOTE
I'm a firm believer in the value of working outdoors from nature, and I'm not shy about saying one simply can't be a good studio painter unless one paints directly from nature outdoors. That said, I seldom finish a painting on location. I take digital photographs of the subject when I start painting, and then I complete the painting in the studio. If the plein air piece is promising enough, I will use it as the basis of a larger studio painting, again using my digital photographs to guide me through the initial stages of the larger composition"-Kathryn Stats

The Story Behind 40 works that changed my career 19

Number 19- Interior Light in Farmyard




This work brings back great memories as it was the first Farm painting I embarked on doing. I haven't been able to keep up this series as much as I would have liked to. But also when I first became a Provisional member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, this was the first painting that I exhibited at their members only exhibition in 2010.

Interior Light in Farmyard, Oil on Board, 18" x 12", 2010.

I always have loved visiting farms and if chanced once again, I'll pick up this series again. I just love interior light in these farm settings, they reveal all these interesting lost and found forms which bring out the beauty of these animals. I have also posted a pencil drawing of this same kind of theme to show the similarity between the way I approach painting and drawing. For this particular painting I started with an underpainting wash of brown on a warm pinkish background, then I built the colours with layers of washes, increasing the colour thickness as I got to the lighter parts of the painting.

Pencil version of Farmyard light

SPECIAL QUOTE
"I don't want dead paint, so I test many of my works by studying them in a dark room at twilight or even after dark to check the luminosity. If the darker forms still have resonance and luminosity, I know the painting's working."-Will Barnet

The Story Behind 40 works that changed my career 18

Number 18- AFRO XX



This piece comes from my AFRO SERIES, a series which I am still currently working on. This series emphasizes the beauty of natural black hair.

I can clearly remember I met a lovely lady, during a weekend in the winter of 2008 and she had a nice looking Afro, not the kind you'll always see. I looked once and twice....then got the courage to ask if she'll like to be in my current series.....She agreed! I had to take pictures of her and that was sufficient, there was no room for sketching as the occasion wasn't the best for that, it was her dad's birthday and everyone was busy having fun.

AFRO XX, 10" x 8", Coloured Pencil/Sanguine Dust, 2008

This work comes as part of the 40 because after I completed the drawing-there was something about the her face that made it seem as if she was about to speak-an alive kind of feeling, somehow in this portrait, not only the hair got the emphasis but something a little bit more deeper- I always believe the mood is best captured by the mouth. I am not always able to get the inner spirit of those I capture and when she saw it she affirmed it too. This one seemed to evolve through the ghosting technique I used in the initial stages of the work. This was done with ghosting the sanguine dust on a self sanded watercolour paper. Then different tones of browns, reds and orange coloured pencils were used to bring out tones and details. I also added my calligraphic writing marks in the background.


SPECIAL QUOTE
"If you are into portraits, you'll often meet people everyday who are what I call, "dream models"- These are the people one would love to paint or draw all day long. But if you just allow them to pass by, the experience is lost forever. Sometimes a sketch would do, sometimes the meeting might be too brief and you'll just need to take risk and ASK politely-The worst case scenario would be a "NO" but often times it's a "YES"- and if a yes, they may allow you to sketch, take a picture, book a sitting or two and in the end, those are the kind of works that become treasures because they come from the soul of the artist- they are something you really wanted to do, far from the commission type of thing-so TAKE A PLUNGE, GIVE IT GO, BECAUSE YOU'LL NEVER KNOW!" -Adebanji Alade

The Story Behind 40 works that changed my career 17

Number 17-Rain, Rain Rain, London Streets




This painting was done in some of the worst conditions and circumstances I was facing at the time I did it last year. Things were going from bad to worse and I struggled to paint this piece for the Chelsea Art Fair last year. I knew I could do a large painting full of figures but I was also a bit timid and didn't know how the whole thing would work out. To see how I went about painting this stage by stage you can click HERE. The stage by stage pictures do not reveal any struggle, sometimes when stages of a painting are shown it almost makes the painting process seem so straightforward and mechanical-nothing about the frustration, discouragement, despondency or sweat shows up and it is almost easy to say, "I could do that on any given day". I wish the painting process was that simple, probably my life would have been much easier!




Number 17-Rain, Rain Rain, London Streets,48" x 30", oil on canvas, 2011

While working on this piece, my laptop packed up and at the time I was so low in funds, I couldn't even repair it. I was facing other rock hard issues in my personal life, the conflict was great! Then I decided to work from pictures and they were poor. Half way through I almost gave up. Then I decided to keep going. I'm so privileged to share my studio with two artists who always offer hope, constructive criticism and encouragement. This really helped as they corrected
many things that would have gone totally wrong with the piece while it was being executed. Alex Fowler NEAC(Painter) wasn't happy with the warm showing through from the under-painting and the architecture(I painted on a warm background) He said it didn't show the true feel of a rainy day. Richard Burn(Sculptor)wasn't happy with colour of one of the umbrellas-I made it what I saw, the colour of the Union Jack, but he insisted it was distracting the whole sombre and subtle grey mood the whole piece had. I listened carefully and altered these areas as I worked on the painting.

It was exhibited at the Chelsea Art Fair in April last and it didn't sell! I wasn't pleased at all and thought, oh no, after all that pain, no one wanted the rain! Then it was exhibited in June at a group show of London Paintings at Enid Lawson Gallery. It was used as the front cover of the exhibition catalogue and it sold on the opening day for £6,450. The couple who bought it were so pleased with the painting. They said it captured everything they felt London is on rainy days and the guy said he had worked around that area I depicted and his daughter was in Australia and he said I had included Australia House in it too, which he said, made it perfect for them! He said he had a son who exactly my age and was happy to see I was doing something great with my life.


SPECIAL QUOTE
"Sometimes the highs are really high and the lows are really low, but we just need to be prepared for every moment, because we can never tell what lies ahead!"-Adebanji Alade

The Story Behind 40 works that changed my career 16

Number 16-The Highbury Goal Machine.





This painting was done for an Art Football Competition( I focused on the highest scoring player for Arsenal, Thierry Henry-He is one of the football players that played the game and scored goals with such flair and fluency- it was almost swagger like or should I use his words VaVa VOOOMMM!!!) but it got rejected, and you may wonder why it changed my career. Well, it was because of the rejection of this piece, that made me take on the next football competition that came up in which I featured an Arsenal Fan in Agony and Ecstasy. Sometimes one's work is rejected, it gives room for one to reflect and assess why it was rejected. So when the selected works were exhibited for the first competition, I looked and I noticed that none of the works selected had any focus on a real footballer but more of what football meant to the artists and photographers who took part. Learning from this rejection, I took on the next one that came up and I was a runner up! Learning from what we might term as failure can be very disappointing but I think the best way to deal with it and move forward is to get feedback. Feedback is very important, a readiness to accept criticism, a readiness to accept what went wrong and a readiness to deal with the ego that plagues most artists-It's that feeling we have kind of grown up with , the feeling people have put into our subconscious way back from the times we were in Primary and Secondary School. Those feelings that we are the best! That we are so talented! And that we are always going to excel. Then all of a sudden we get into the real art world and we notice a difference!¬ We put work into juried shows and we get rejected. What's our first reaction? They don't like me, they don't like my name, they don't like my style, they are biased, they only favour a group of people......We could go on!! But the bitter truth normally is we are rejecting the path of failure, which if turned inside out will produce success!



The Highbury Goal Machine, Mixed Media on Canvas, 24" x 18", 2007


Looking at this piece there's nothing wrong with the piece, but without me going to the exhibition of selected works for feedback, I would never have known that they didn't want works that depicted actual football players. So, like I mentioned in some of the earlier posts in the stories that made my career, I'll say it again,. The rejection may be because the work doesn't suit the criteria of the exhibition, and this was clearly my experience with this piece. I hope I can keep reminding myself of these things because as humans we are prone to forget.

SPECIAL QUOTE
"Be humble. Realize that you're not that good. There are 10,000 artists living that are better than you. There are 100,000,000 in art history that are even better. Feel good about what you do but don't lose sight of this reality. Challenge yourself to do things you don't think you can do, either out of fear or lack of knowledge. Expose yourself to ALL kinds of art- painting, sculpture, film, furniture design, illustration, architecture, animation, etc. Ask yourself WHAT and WHY you like certain aspects of your favorite art pieces and allow that to nurture, inspire and motivate your own work. The artists' ego is his/her own worst enemy." -Shawn Barber

The Story Behind 40 works that changed my career 15

Number 15- Rush Hour III



This painting gave me a great leap, I mean a great leap towards plunging into Art full time. It was painted slowly and carefully for about 6 months or so, combining it with my full time job at St Mungo's, and being a new father of a little boy who was only 1 year old at the time. I was painting from a really bad picture, that wasn't clear at all, so, I kept on inventing all the time. All the faces were derived from my sketches as it was a full motion picture without any detail. I remember taking this picture during the Christmas Rush Hour the year before.




Rush Hour III, Oil on Canvas, 80cm x 100cm, 2007

I remember going to the Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition in 2006 and I watched as they gave out the prizes to the Under 35-Young Painters category sponsored by Winsor and Newton, and I looked at the quality of the paintings and I said to myself, "I can see why I didn't get in." One of the paintings I submitted that year was marked "D"(Which means Doubtful)- which was very encouraging!!! I said to myself, "If I can get a D with this painting, then if I put in triple this effort, I might be able to get in next year!"



That's me with Maureen Lipman CBE and Dennis Syrett(The then President of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters)

Then came 2007 and I put in 2 paintings, I was so desperate, I didn't even frame them. But I believed in them. When then results came out. One of the paintings got accepted and the other rejected. I was so pleased! But that wasn't all, I later got a call that I had won the First Prize in the Under 35 Category!!! Now that was the last time I could put work into this category as I was 35 at the time. I couldn't believe it. But that wasn't all, they called me to get the work professionally framed and bring it back in time for the Annual exhibition. This work won me £1,000 worth of Art materials from Winsor & Newton and a week into the exhibition someone bought the painting! That was a great year for me because prior to that I had won another competition organized by Winsor & Newton but that was a Watercolour One! All these little strides kept pumping me up for the great leap in 2008 and looking back, I have no regrets!!!!



Adebanji with winning painting


SPECIAL QUOTE
"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not: unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are the omnipotent. The slogan "Press on"has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race"
-Calvin Coolidge

The Story Behind 40 works that changed my career 14

Number 14- Rush Hour II



In this post I'll be showing the stages of completion from start to finish. This shows another technique I use when starting off these kind of crowded scenes. With This Rush Hour I started with an abstract acrylic opaque wash, I really wanted the finished painting to have a lot of density and that's why I used this technique.




Rush Hour II, Oil on Canvas, 80 x 120cm, 2007


I exhibited this painting at the Patching's Art Exhibition organised by The Artist Magazine in 2008. It won the Pro-Arte Award- if I can remember, that won me Paint Brushes worth £250, some of which I am still using till today.

Stage 1


Stage 2


Stage 3


Stage 4


Final Stage


SPECIAL QUOTE
"Here are some other ways I try to spark my imagination:
=Look through my reference files, sketchbooks, and photographs
=Take a subject I like and paint a series of it
=paint some fresh flowers
=set up a still life
=buy a new brush, colour, or paper
=read a book or magazine on watercolours
=read about the masters
=look at some of my old paintings
=go to a workshop
=mat some of my work
=go to a museum"
-Angela D'Aleo on the Purpose of Painting

The Story Behind 40 works that changed my career 13

Number 13-Evening Light From Battersea Bridge




This painting meant so much to me because before this competition came up I had never set up to paint in the Chelsea area. Sometimes we don't seem to appreciate the area where we live or work and always look out to travel or paint somewhere else. But when Heatherleys and The Cheyne Walk Trust decided to set up the competition and auction in aid of a Bursary for Students at Heatherley's I was forced to paint around my studio area. The brief was to capture any area around The Chelsea Riverside and Cheyne Walk area. I entered two paintings-One I did on site on a very grey and rainy day and this one which was painted from a picture of the Chelsea Riverside from Battersea Bridge. Both paintings sold at the exhibition and this one won the Best Work in the show! I was really delighted because a few months before that I had just won the Plein Air Prize at the Bath Prize and this one really fired me up! It was this competition that really fired me up to take on my famous "Bath Marathon in 2010"-Where I painted 212, 6" x 8" paintings of Bath in 4 months-something I still wonder up till today, how I managed to achieve! But there's something very contagious about success and confidence-both become springboards to reach higher heights!



Evening Light, From Battersea Bridge, 24" x 30", Oil on board, 2010.


The use of the digital Camera has become really important in developing some of these paintings. I learned so much from Karin Jurick, who goes around with a camera like a hunter! She comes back to the studio to produce some wonderful paintings-she always talks about not being a slave to the picture but being ready to use one's artistic shorthand to bring it to life!


Below are some pictures of the painting in progress and the award ceremony.



Receiving award from Prof. Ken Howard



Getting the mood, half way through the painting



Even though the quote below is about writing-it applies to painting too!

SPECIAL QUOTE
"So PUT IT OUT THERE. Send your work off to editors and agents as much as possible, show it to your neighbors, plaster it on the walls of the bus stops – just don’t sit on your work and suffocate it. At least try. And when the powers-that-be send you back your manuscript (and they will), take a deep breath and try again. I often hear people say, “I’m not good enough yet to be published.” That’s quite possible. Probable, even. All I’m saying is: Let someone else decide that. Magazines, editors, agents – they all employ young people making $22,000 a year whose job it is to read through piles of manuscripts and send you back letters telling you that you aren’t good enough yet: LET THEM DO IT. Don’t pre-reject yourself. That’s their job, not yours. Your job is only to write your heart out, and let destiny take care of the rest."-Elizabeth Gibert author of Eat, Pray, love

The Story Behind 40 works that changed my career 11

Number 11- Summerlight Clapham Common





In Summer of 2009 an 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 of that 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!


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

This painting 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.

Below are pictures of the set up and how it looked when I was half way through.



The set up with the photo references, palette and all that




Half way through progress


This work didn't sell in the ROI exhibition but sold by Enid Lawson Gallery at the Affordable Art Fair in 2010 at Battersea. The Lady who bought it said it reminded her of times she used to take her children out to splash parks. It's always great to find out why people buy paintings!

SPECIAL QUOTE
"Because a painting didn't sell in one exhibition, is no reason why it won't sell in another....the right buyer sometimes wasn't in the one where it didn't sell. It sounds quite straight forward but how many times have we given up as artists on a work and hid it behind in the dark stacks because it didn't sell...But another secret maybe the Framing and where it was positioned!"-Adebanji Alade