Royal Society of Portrait Artists Annual Show 2017

Delightful exhibition at the Mall Galleries of work by members of the Royal Society of Portrait Artists.

It’s always interesting to see that colleges, companies and organisations are still commissioning portraits although some of the more personal works were the better pictures. There were a lot of artists working in egg tempura and it was interesting to look at the tiny hatched strokes which built into highly realistic pictures.

I loved the striking “Study of the Artist as a Heart Patient” by Jeff Stultens a series of self-portraits of his operation, recovery and ending with him sitting up in a chair. He’d asked the medical staff to document his treatment so he could paint this.  Alaister Adam’s portrait of Professor Roy Cowell pulled you across the room, partly because of the well composed background of a library’s red balcony and the stairwell behind which threw the figure out of the picture.

Other pictures told stories like Sam Dalby’s “Packing Away” which showed a family packing away books and getting distracted. I felt they were clearing the house of dead parents and being led off by memories. There was a clever picture by David Dalby of a tailor with bits cut out like material and one leg merging into the background.

My favourite was by Michael Harding of John Williams. It had a wonderful smooth finish but the big pot of blue paint was a rough with the texture of runny paint.

Closed on 19 May 2017

 

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