I am very pleased to announce that my painting "Blue Coco"(17 x 20 inches, oil on canvas) has been selected for exhibition in the BP Portrait Award 2010. I have been wanting to apply to this competition for a number of years, and was finally able to do so this year. I am super stoked to be showing at the National Portrait Gallery in London, where the exhibition starts each year before travelling to Lincoln and Aberdeen. Last year 1800 artists applied and 55 paintings were chosen, so you can understand how over the moon I am about being exhibited.
We visited the National Portrait Gallery in October and I was excited to see one of Pietro Annigoni's portraits of the Queen. Annigoni is a great hero of mine and part of my academic lineage, so to show in the same gallery as the master and the many other painters I admire is a true honour. Stop by and check out the show in you're in London this summer, it was attended by 280,000 people last year and is the gallery's most attended exhibition. Yesssssssss!
BP Portrait Award 2010 Exhibition Schedule
National Portrait Gallery. June 24-September 19 2010
Usher Gallery, Lincoln. September -November, 2010.
Aberdeen Art Gallery. November 27 2010 -January 22 2010.
I would also like to announce that I am now represented by Engine Gallery in Toronto's Distillery District. The area is made up of gorgeous old booze factories, and has become one of the city's really hip spaces filled with galleries, restaurants and shops. I have a few drawings and paintings up on the walls right now, and will be having my first solo exhibition there in October 2011. With all of this good news, the commissions I'm working on, a new studio, and fresh canvases to stretch it looks like it's going to be a pretty incredible summer!
