Artist Archives - Page 7 of 7 - The Majlis Gallery - Haven for Artists AND Art Lovers.

Alan Halliday

Alan Halliday was trained at the Courtauld Institute of Art where he was taught by Anthony Blunt and Anita Brookner, and also at Oxford where he was awarded a doctorate in the history of art. He has been painting full-time professionally for thirty years.

Alan first painted and exhibited with the Majlis in the early 1990s. He also exhibited, very successfully, in Beirut in conjunction with the Caracalla Dance Company. In addition to landscapes from around the world, Alan specializes in paintings of the human figure in general and dancers and performers in particular. He is currently Resident Artist with English National Ballet; and for the last twenty-five years he has drawn and painted all the dress rehearsals held by the Royal Ballet and the Royal Opera at Covent Garden. He has also been the on-set artist for award-winning films such as ‘Shakespeare in Love’.

Alan has recently moved to France and is currently engaged on a large series of canvases in his new studio in the Loire. He also undertakes commissions for paintings to be shown in major public areas. In this way, he has painted extensively for a number of cruise liners, and also the imposing new foyer of the London InterContinental Hotel at Number One, Park Lane.

View Alan Halliday Portfolio

Alexander Creswell

Alexander Creswell’s early years as the son of a diplomat instilled in him a love of travel and the observation of diverse cultures, observations that he recorded intuitively in sketch books and on scraps of paper. Largely self-taught he has become one of today’s most revered and collectible watercolour artists. He is noted above all else for his splendid series of commissions carried out for the British Royal Family and for his haunting paintings of and books on “The Silent Houses of Britain.”

His artist-traveler lifestyle takes him literally all over the world From New York to the Great Wall of China but he is often drawn back to Oman and the UAE to record the fast disappearing evidence of, as he puts it, “past footsteps”.

Alexander’s paintings so vividly capture the light and atmosphere of the Southern Gulf. In his words “you have to really understand a place before you can expect to paint it convincingly.” He spends countless hours wandering looking absorbing and recording his visual and emotional experiences in his own inimitable style. A style that owes much to his in depth understanding and command of the craft of watercolour painting.

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Susan Thomson

Susan trained in Graphic Design and Printing Technical Knowledge before working in advertising. She went on to study Botanical Drawing and Watercolour at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

She has exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy; Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society, Gardening Scotland 2006 (achieving a silver medal) in Edinburgh; in the Westminster Gallery with Society of Botanical Artists; the Royal Academy of Arts ‘Summer Exhibition’ ; the Llewellyn Alexander ‘NOT the Royal Academy’ and The Colomb Art Gallery in London.

Susan has had a solo Exhibition in the Colours Gallery in Edinburgh. In Bath she has been included in Exhibitions in two public galleries, the Victoria Art Gallery and the Holburne Museum of Art and had a solo Exhibition in the Rookesmoor Gallery.

A member of the Society of Floral Painters, she exhibits with them at Mottisfont Abbey and Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, both near Romsey, and at Compton Acres in Poole. Also a member of the Bath Society of Botanical Artists she has been included in the Henry Exhibitions in Bath and in the National Botanic Garden in Dublin.

Susan has had joint exhibitions at the Great Oak Hall, Westonbirt Arboretum, Tetbury; the Abbey House Gardens, Malmsbury and in The Colomb Art Gallery, London where she has exhibited a wide range of other images alongside her botanical work. She has also had her black and white illustrations included in the Blue Guide Scotland.

Susan is based near Exeter and has her work in private collections in the United Kingdom and in the United States of America.

View Susan Thomson Portfolio

Lynette Ten Krooden

Lynette Ten Krooden is often categorised as a “landscape artist.” This narrow definition, of this well-travelled and scholarly artist is perhaps too restrictive.

Lynette’s works penetrate deeper than mere representations of landscape and become vehicles for her exploration of symbols and spiritual dwellings with a metaphysical quality. Twenty-five years of travel and research into fossil life, ancient civilisations, their petroglyphs and cultures has resulted in Lynette forming a universal mythology which she utilizes as a forum for discourse. Within this context, she often explores microscopic and macroscopic aspects of nature as a reflection of human communication with the earth, with each other and with their gods.

The artist’s footprints stretch over the patterned lava rock of the Karoo to Petra and the Jordanian desert; Timbucto in Mali up to the Sahara desert and many more magical destinations.

The exquisite use of textures, layers and a unique gold-leaf process forms a cohesive visual vocabulary that elevates her paintings to visual feasts of spiritual manifestations. Multiple layering of rich colours, overlaid in some instances with sharp graphic line work, add a depth to her paintings which is uniquely her own.

Upon first glance, Lynette’s canvases provide a feeling of vast, expectant stillness. Further examination reveals a varied and intense landscape promoting dreams and spiritual flights of imagination. This unassuming painter bares soul and intellect with a technical finesse that has justifiably earned her position as an internationally sought after artist.

View Lynette Ten Krooden Portfolio

Paul Wadsworth

The desert landscape surrounding Dubai and the lush Hajar Mountains inspire many of the works; particularly the small, coastal enclave of Oman, the Mussandam with its stunning rock faces that through the process of time have produced a diversity of patterns, colours and shapes. Signs of ancient and present dwellings exist, mainly fishing villages that seem to merge into the mountains.

Painting out in the landscape in is a great inspiration; the moods of the sea, the big skies, deserts changing colour through the day, The tools Paul uses are brushes, pallet knives, large paint scrapers and quite often his hands. Paint is applied and quite often scraped off then reapplied until he can feel his way into the painting. This process can sometimes take awhile before something starts to happen on the canvas. He aims not to start a painting with too many preconceptions thus allowing for the work to change and develop with as much freedom as possible.

In his words “A painting is a combination of many things but, for me, becomes finished when a balance of chaos and control is found through the use of composition, colour, movement and self.” A highly likeable character who lives life to the full Paul is a serious painter with a serious following but such fun too.

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June Bartlett

June Bartlett first arrived in the U.A.E. in 1979 – and first showed her work in the Gulf at the British Trade Fair in Dubai. Since then she has regularly exhibited at several different venues including the Majlis Gallery.

She is known predominantly as a landscape painter but she is also highly regarded for her portraiture. In 1980 she was commissioned to paint the portrait of HH Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, President of the U.A.E. and Ruler of Abu Dhabi, and has since completed portraits of HH Sheikh Isa bin Sulman Al Khalifa of Bahrain, (1983) and HM Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman, (1995).

In 2000 an extensive tour of Jordan was arranged by the Diwan – resulting in June painting twelve landscapes for the Royal Court, Amman. 2007 saw June taking off for Syria. A solo exhibition of her Syrian paintings at a major London gallery is planned for 2009. June lived in Bahrain for several years and has visited Oman on many occasions.

She is now mainly based in the UK but returns frequently to the Middle East and her Gulf-inspired work is shown regularly at prestigious galleries in London.

View June Bartlett Portfolio

Astrid Harrisson

An award-winning photographer inspired by the world of the horse, Astrid Harrisson is renowned for her ability to capture the essence of her subjects in her work. Astrid’s imagery appeals to a global audience and her fine art works are held by myriad private collectors the world over. Commissions take Astrid around the globe enabling her to continue to dedicate her life to working with some of the world’s finest and rarest horses amongst some of the most interesting cultures. Astrid travels regularly to the Middle East, where her attentions were originally drawn by the beauty and history of the world of the Arabian horse.

Astrid’s vision is simple and clear – one of empathy, intrigue and spirit. The compassion Astrid has for her subjects is evident in every image, her talents behind the lens perhaps second-place to the sense of intimacy and nostalgia she evokes through her works.

The combination of digital processing methods and interesting printing materials is what continues to absorb Astrid – she is currently exploring printing original pieces onto recycled metals and handmade Indian cotton rag, as well as producing a collection of photogravure etchings of horses from around the world under the kind Patronage of Shaikha Hissa bint Sultan bin Khalifa al Nahyan.

Astrid collaborated with British author Tamsin Pickeral to produce a coffee table book entitled “The Majesty of the Horse”, which was published internationally in 2012.

ARTIST NOTE

“I am an experimenter, a dreamer and an adventurer. And I’m not very good at sticking to the rules. I believe these traits help cultivate my style and distinguish me from the crowd. My work is about an animal that so many cultures love and admire; an animal that never ceases to amaze, and one that is deeply integrated within societies the world over. Herein lies my fascination.”