Tag: painting

Designer Desire: Kyffin Williams

Montage of Kyffin Williams artworks

We’re just back from a few days away in sunny Wales, so it’s timely that we’re featuring a famous Welsh artist in this week’s Designer Desire series, Sir Kyffin Williams.

Williams (1918 – 2006) was a landscape and portrait painter who lived in Llanfairpwllgwyngyll (otherwise famously known as Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch) on the Welsh island of Anglesey. He failed an army medical on the grounds of epilepsy and was advised by a doctor, “As you are, in fact, abnormal, I think it would be a good idea if you took up art”.

He attended Slade School of Fine Art in London from 1941. His subject matter often consisted of Welsh mountains and cottages with farmers, shepherds and sheepdogs taking centre stage.

Oil painting self-portrait by Kyffin Williams

I don’t think we’ll be able to afford one a Kyffin Williams original oil painting in this lifetime or the next; however, limited-edition prints and multiples can be had at auction and online.

Here’s a 6-minute film which shares photographs of the man and further examples of his work.

Additional image credits:

Art Wales

Designer Desire: David Alfaro Siqueiros

Montage of David Alfaro Siqueiros paintings and murals | H is for Home

If asked to name a Mexican artist, you’d probably immediately think of Frida Kahlo. However, I’ve recently discovered the magnificent work of David Alfaro Siqueiros.

David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896-1974) was a radical, social realist painter and muralist. A member of the Mexican Communist Party and established ‘Mexican Muralism’ alongside Kahlo’s husband, Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco.

He frequently painted representations of strong, proud and tragic figures of the proletariat and portraits of heroic revolutionary, Emiliano Zapata and repressive regime leader, Porfirio Diaz. His murals were often on a massive scale; La Marcha de la Humanidad housed at Polyforum Cultural Siqueiros in Mexico City is the largest in the world.

I see stylistic similarities to Stanley Spencer and Lucien Freud – probably what drew his work to me.

There are examples of his work in the permanent collections of the Tate in London and MOMA in New York.

Portrait of David Alfaro Siqueiroscredit

This is a short documentary about the man. Unless your grasp of Spanish is better than mine, I’d recommend you switch on the subtitles to watch!

Additional image credits:

Artnet | Christie’s |

Designer Desire: Mahmoud Sabri

Montage of paintings by Mahmoud Sabri | H is for Home

This week, we’re turning our attentions to another Middle Eastern artist, Mahmoud Sabri. Sabri (1927-2012), was born in Iraq, studied social sciences in Loughborough, art in Moscow, moved to Prague and finally settled in London.

We’ve concentrated on his early political works which often depicted scenes of suffering, despair, defiance and hope. His style was influenced by Mesopotamian art, Iraqi folklore, Soviet propaganda posters and Orthodox Christian art. His later graphic, geometric style – which he dubbed Quantum Realism – isn’t as much to my taste.

The painting featured at the bottom of our montage above – Al Mawt Al-Tafl (The Death of a Child) – sold last month (April 2019) at Sotheby’s for a whopping £891,000.

Watch our round up of films below to find out more about the artists and his works. The final three are narrated in Arabic (sadly, no subtitles) but they’re informative all the same.

Image credits:

Artzf | Christie’s | Sotheby’s

Designer Desire: Steve Capper

Mosaic of Steve Capper paintings | H is for Home

A few weeks ago, when we were looking for a photograph of Peter Stanaway, we came across an artist that he had a joint exhibition with last year, Steve Capper (b. 1944).

Capper has had a long and successful career as a painter as well as being an art teacher. He retired from the teaching profession in 1996; at the time, he had been head of the art faculty at a comprehensive school in Oldham. Since then, he has concentrated on pursuing his painting.

He has said of his style and composition:

My work is not a photographic image of a single place, but rather a composite of several places. I am attempting to capture the feeling and atmosphere of Saddleworth and the Pennines, focusing on the shapes and patterns formed by the clouds, fields and trees etc. My use of primary colours is to emphasise the forms created by these special landscapes. I have been painting still life pieces for over forty years since I came across the work of Picasso, Braque and Mattice. The format feels like an old friend and something I am comfortable with.

Steve Capper’s art is sold in a number of (mainly) Northern galleries including Ascot Studios, Gateway Galley, Red Rag Gallery and Trent Art.

By the way, we never found a photo of the elusive Stanaway!

Portrait of artist, Steve Capper