Innehållsförteckning för October 2023 från Artists & Illustrators

…that art is good for your emotional well-being. Study after study has shown that making art can reduce stress, lower anxiety and improve overall mood. It validates our ideas and ability to turn ideas into something tangiable and physical. This is something that Hitchin based artist, Sarah Graham – who has become renowned for her fun and joyfully kitsch paintings – can relate to. She has struggled with her mental health over the years and had a severe breakdown in 2017. Fortunately, she has been in remission for four years but cites very honestly that “art saved her life” and helped her on her path to recovery. But it wasn’t just art. In her times of great need, the Samaritans were always there for her. Which is why she’s decided…

18 SEPTEMBER Artists over 18 who have graduated from a UK-based art school within the last five years can enter the Ingram Prize 2023 now for free. ingramprize.artopps.co.uk 25 SEPTEMBER Enter your artworks for The Boomer Art Prize for a chance to exhibit at The Boomer Gallery. The prize fund totals £10,000. Entries cost £35 for three works. boomergallery.co.uk 30 SEPTEMBER Paralym Art World Cup wants art by people with disabilities on the theme: JOURNEY. You could win a cash prize and attend an award ceremony in Tokyo. Free entry. paralymart-wc.com 1 OCTOBER Submit your works for the Bada Art Prize, seeking to promote 'the antiques of tomorrow.' You must be enrolled in or completed higher education at a UK institution. Free to enter. bada.org…

All artists will experience a creative slump at some point. An inspirational art course is a sure-fire way to get you back into creating, regardless of the reason – a lack of desire or displeasure at how much progress you’re making. This month, 10 lucky Artists & Illustrators readers will each have the chance to receive top-notch art tuition thanks to our collaboration with the esteemed St Ives School of Painting. The school was established in 1938 by two young officers and is housed in magnificent studios with a view of Porthmeor Beach in St Ives. They made the decision that, if they made it through the atrocities of war, they would one day reside in St Ives and pursue their artistic endeavours there. It was an instant success. The…

I AM A SELF-TAUGHT, coloured pencil artist – originally from Serbia, now based in Birmingham for the past 17 years – who is passionate about creating realistic hand-drawn portraits that owners can cherish for life. As a proud dad of two retired, loving and very gentle Greyhounds, I know how important our four-legged friends are to us. I want to help pet lovers all over the world, by immortalising their pet in a unique, one-of-a-kind portrait, that will last a lifetime. I love capturing their character, heart and soul, which instantly connects and speaks to their owner – as well as using the highest grade of art materials. That is my biggest priority. igorsfineartstudio.com 1 START BY MAKING A SKETCH OF THE SUBJECT I always use a reference photo. I…

AS A FINE ARTIST, the main body of my work has evolved into wildlife art, which I often submit to charities to raise funds for animal conservation. Alongside this, I also paint dog portraits, with a percentage of sales going to various dog rescue charities both in the UK and abroad. There has been a long tradition of dog portraiture across the centuries, with artists as diverse as Gainsborough through to David Hockney, celebrating our relationship with dogs by capturing the intelligence, independence and spirit of these faithful companions. Edwin Landseer depicted dogs in narrative scenes that conveyed human aspects and frequently contained moralising undertones reflecting on the human condition. By contrast, George Stubbs often showed his canine subjects in profile, thereby accentuating the individual characteristics of the breed. As…

This piece is very close to my heart and I believe it was the best way to communicate my feelings at this point in my life – about the nature of life around me and my thoughts regarding life, death and the afterlife. The idea for this painting was developed over time; through a series of thought processes and many conversations about time, life, death and the afterlife. I have been working on this concept for quite a long time – around eight months. Part of the credit goes to my husband as we engage in a lot of discussions about ‘what happens when we die.’ The name, ‘Transience’ signifies the passing of time and our lack of awareness regarding it. After becoming a mother – and giving birth to…

PENELOPE KIRK This month’s cover artist is a wildlife artist generating donations for animal conservation through her artwork. In the same spirit, she also captures the personality of pets with her dog portraits, with a percentage of sales going to a variety of dog welfare charities here and abroad. BRYAN MARK TAYLOR As a painter, Bryan has won top awards in national and international shows, including four major awards in the international ARC Salon. His work is in private, corporate, and museum collections worldwide. Bryan received his BA from BYU and his MFA from the Academy of Art University. NAIMAL KHAWAR Naimal is a visual artist and painter whose work explores themes of the human condition, beauty and personal observations. She graduated from the National College of Arts, Pakistan with…

I GREW UP in the East Anglian fens. It’s an extremely flat landscape and the skies there are phenomenal. This directly fed into how I work today. Returning to live on the East Coast felt like coming home, the skies are so familiar and only now do I feel that ability to capture them with the emotional resonance they deserve. I was always a creative child with a vivid imagination. However, it was whilst living in Devon and Cornwall in my twenties that I found my true inspiration. Discovering the work of the St Ives school and a growing appreciation for the landscape switched my mind to thinking more about painting. It was a collection of moments and realisations that soon manifested in an overwhelming desire to paint. Becoming a…

Things we love… Using the language of paint with nods to the great storytellers of the past, artist Amy Dury unites the experience of being a woman in our time with our complex history, for her latest exhibition, Evidence. Dury guides us using paint that shifts between detail, form and abstracted pattern. There is pathos and significance in the moments portrayed, but also humour, with knowing callbacks to well-known cultural moments. From 9 September to 1 October 2023 at 1 Victoria Grove, Brighton and Hove BN3 2LJ. amydury.com Don’t miss… the chance to own Banksy’s Valentine’s Day Mascara mural. Showpiece, the marketplace for some of the world’s rarest collectables, announces the latest in its portfolio of artworks and artefacts to enter into fractional ownership: a 2023 mural by world-famous, anonymous and…

TALES FROM THE RIVERBANK 10 to 15 October 2023 An exhibition of contemporary art inspired by Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows will display over 20 works from artists such as Stanley Donwood, Malene Hartmann Rasmussen and Charlie Billingham. Tales from the Riverbank will bring together works from leading British-based contemporary artists, working in photography, ceramics, painting and drawing, that explore the iconography and themes that have made The Wind in the Willows such a celebrated and significant text. TIN MAN ART, 4 Cromwell Place, London SW7 2JE. tinmanart.com PARALLEL LIVES 16 September 2023 to 13 January 2024 This exhibition looks at the careers and experiences of eight female artists, whose lives spanned the 20th century: Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Prunella Clough, Ithell Colquhoun, Evelyn Dunbar, Gertrude Hermes, Barbara Jones, Enid…

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH SUPPORTED BY WE’RE EXCITED TO HOST the annual British Art Prize once again this year, sponsored by digital giant Adobe. A significant national art competition, The British Art Prize will provide winning artists of all levels with a broad platform for achieving beneficial exposure and recognition for their artwork. Open to everyone, whether you’re a novice, an up-and-coming artist, or a seasoned painter, all genres, media and methods will be taken into consideration. The British Art Prize provides artists with the possibility to sell their creations to a combined audience of around one million art enthusiasts and collectors, as well as a first-of-its-kind amount of national exposure across four major magazine brands. Additionally, there is an enormous prize fund including cash awards, art gift cards and the…

I FIND PAINTING PORTRAITS from life endlessly fascinating. Taking advantage of the depth of colours and values that are observed in nature is one of the most rewarding challenges for an experienced painter, and a great learning opportunity for the aspiring artist. However, it might be difficult to find the right model whilst working from photographs. When selecting a photograph, make sure it’s well-lit, has clear light and shade, and that the lights aren’t too bleached or the darks too dead. If you’re looking for high-quality photos, then Raw Umber Studios has a wide selection on their website. Usually, I employ a technique called ‘direct painting,’ also known as wet-on-wet and often confused with alla prima. The main difference between painting alla prima (in one session) and ‘direct painting’ is…

WITH MY OBSESSION for the paintings of the old masters and the never-ending fascination with the light and shadow they seem to capture, it’s no surprise that this has found its way into my painting style. Creating a still life composition comes quite naturally – having had a lot of practice in photography – but there is always something new to learn in every painting experience. As a full-time mother of two (and attempting to be a full-time artist at the same time!) it can be very much a stop-start process. In this feature, I will be showing you how I break this into stages. I absolutely love a carefully balanced still life composition, of fruit or vegetables and some favourite vintage or antique items (usually charity shop finds). In…

MESSAGE OF THE MONTH Christine Leedham As a subscriber to Artists and Illustrators for over 10 years now, the brilliant articles and information in this magazine have motivated me through a part-time BA(Hons)in Fine Art from 2014 to 2019 – and even through lockdown when face-to-face art classes couldn’t happen. Then, it helped influence me at the age of 62 to start renting a studio in Newcastle-upon Tyne 2021, to continue developing as a ‘painter.’ It is great to read monthly about how other artists work and gain insights into their tips and techniques and receive information about upcoming exhibitions all over the country. My work to date has focused largely on Contemporary Portraiture in the age of The Selfie, alongside some experimental work lately in still life and landscape…

“For centuries the study of the human figure has been an essential part of any great artistic education. I have created many figurative drawings over the years, and I have fallen in love with the wonderful charcoal provided by Nitram, and the poetic delicacy one can achieve with it. This charcoal drawing was executed from life on heavy watercolour paper, toned by hand with ink diluted in water. Since I chose not to use any blending techniques in this drawing, it called for very precise form hatching and most subtle mark-making. The beauty and excellence of Nitram Charcoal lies specifically in the wide variety of marks one can achieve with the different degrees of hardness amongst Nitram’s range of charcoal. From bold, dark marks to a most refined, pencil-like quality…