About Me |
|
|
I am an American artist who grew up in New York and have painted for as long as I can remember. As a child I belonged to a group called the King-Coit theatre which launched an annual Broadway production. We learned each line of Shakespeare etc. and changed roles on different nights. Two hours of painting were included each rehearsal day for us to visualise sets and costume. One painting of mine apparently was sold to a wallpaper company when I was eight; I don't remember this but I do remember the joy of my first watercolour wash, learning how to care for a brush and loving every minute of those imaginative days. Later, these skills paid off in a variety of practical artistic jobs while supporting my growing children in Los Angeles. I am mostly "self-taught" but this early training instilled patience, observance of detail, a desire to "get it right" and a feel for nuance; today, it is no accident that both people and their settings are my main artistic interests. I moved to London in 1983 and since that time have exhibited regularly, first at the Plazzota Studio and since then with the Chelsea Art Society (where I also serve on the Council), with The Nine Elms Group of Artists and at the Mall Galleries in conjunction with "Art for Youth". Painting houses in England brought back this combination of art and drama. When I look at a structure, a visitor on the outside looking in, an entire cast of characters often make themselves felt. The artist is in the company of children who have grown and gone, of relatives and others who have walked through the same doorway generations before. The windows mirror not only the transience of passing clouds and present hours; they seem to radiate connection to the past- a solidarity of bricks, mortar, stone and wood that carry with them the movement of history.. Painting architecture in other in other countries often offers different, if no less pleasurable, artistic connection. Portraits of adult people also combine this surround: who they were as children, who they have become, who is important to them in their life presently and who, in former generations was of influence. I prefer whenever possible to paint a person in their own environment where they are comfortable and where I can soak in personal atmosphere. Time for busy people to sit is often at a premium. The portrait of Canon Gray (see my Gallery) was done in the Little Cloister of Westminster Abbey in four hourly sittings in between his official duties in different places that required a change of dress as well. He read his mail when I didn’t need to see his face and I learned far more about the demanding life of a Canon, and thus of his character, than if it were possible for him to get to a studio. The late Frank Roberts, no less busy at age eighty-eight did come for sittings here, bounding up the stairs with the energy of youth and bringing his atmospheric surround with him. A tiny "Chinese Mandarin" figure of large diplomatic note, he kept up an intricate conversation with my husband whilst my canvas on a tin easel tottered between them. At the end of each session he would tell me the story about a man forever getting on the number 9 bus to be immortalised by a sculptress until he had had enough. The sculptress said his nose was still not right. The man said, "Madame, I do not care if I have one but you must finish today!" I am glad that this portrait (complete with nose will grace the new British Embassy in Berlin). I am gladder still that I got the chance to know him and receive such timely advice. I accept commissions in Britain, America, Spain and other parts of the world and am included in many private collections. If you wish to ask me any questions or authorise a commission, my email address is anndavdimav@yahoo.com |
|