Heroines and Heroes of Britsh History… Caroline Shotton’s Amazing New Original Collection

This beautiful summer in London has reignited the idea of cool Britania. So celebrate by embracing the kooky self-deprecating nature of British wit through the art work of one of Britain’s best loved artists Caroline Shotton.

Caroline’s surreal look at the history of Britain begs us to ask a question that I am almost certain no one has ever asked themselves, what if the gift of opposable thumbs had been bestowed upon a completely different species?

Her whimsical imaginary world makes us look at our own perceptions of history, removing the stuffy academic memories of trudging through text books and replacing them with a childlike abundance of fun.

From Queen Victoria to Sir Francis Drake no one escapes the Shotton bovine treatment. The painterly quality and skill that goes into each one of these glorious originals is absolutely immense and the detail and time spent on each square centimetre is clear to behold.

This fabulous collection of original oils will be snapped up extremely quickly, so there is little time to chew the cud over these wonderful pieces.

“Raw Instinct” – Ronnie Wood’s Art Exhibition Opens At The Castle Fine Art Gallery in London

Some of the originals from the exhibition are now in our gallery on South Molton Street – stop by to have a look…

Legendary Rolling Stone, Ronnie Wood, who also happens to be a trained painter, displayed his “Raw Instinct” art exhibition at The Castle Fine Art Gallery in London.

Thanks to The Rolling Stones‘ website for pointing it out here.

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Stuart McAlpine Miller | Estelle Lovatt in Art of England

In this month’s issue of Art of England magazine – check out page 37 for art critic Estelle Lovatt’s reasons for investing in Stuart McAlpine Miller.

Art of England – Stuart McAlpine Miller is named as ‘the’ artist to invest in by art critic Estelle Lovatt in the latest issue of Art of England magazine

Stuart is currently busy painting for his début Mayfair exhibition with Castle Galleries in September.  We’ve seen Stuart take inspiration from children’s comic book characters, including The Beano, Popeye and Catwoman and are really looking forward to seeing everything in one place.

For more information on what he’s working on right now contact us at the gallery.  Although the exhibition is still some time away, we are already taking enquiries for those who would like to attend, so please send us an email with your contact details and we will get in touch with you to discuss further.

Art for the Summer and Your Free Gift

Indulge Yourself

WITH OUR NEW LIMITED EDITION ART – IN THE GALLERY FROM JUNE 1ST

Get ready for summer with the new collections from Alexander Millar, Craig Davison…

Alexander Millar presents three new limited edition pieces which mark a juncture in his career, depicting an almost ethereal representation of London. 

Alexander Millar
Battersea Sunset
£625

Bob Barker continues to display his mastery of grisaille, a monochrome technique that can be traced from Early Netherlandish paintings through to Rembrandt and Picasso.

Bob Barker
Love Finds a Way
£599

In ‘Love Finds a Way’. Peter Smith and his colourful Impossimals return, complete with cakes and bunnies…

Peter Smith
Cake O’Clock
£375

Peter Smith
Meet the Family
£425

… Whilst Craig Davison invites us to step back into our childhood and relive those endless summer days…

Craig Davison
Whooooooooow!
£399

Craig Davison
Guns of the Magnificent Seven
£950

Make the most of summer with our summer promotion –

Your Free Gift

WITH ANY PURCHASE MADE ON YOUR ART CARD

Our friends at V12 Retail Finance have commissioned a collection of six limited edition pieces of art which they are giving away free with any purchase made on an Art Card – our interest free payment finance option.*

From endearing works by Caroline Shotton, Peter Smith and Shazia, to romantic scenes by Paul Kenton and Paul Horton, these free gifts are available throughout May and June… but they are sure to get snapped up quickly, so contact the gallery soon to make sure you don’t miss out!

> Find out more about our interest free credit option

*Terms and conditions.

Rhys’s Last Word | A Human Struggle

Human history is awash with figures who through their actions inspire us to do better, try harder and reach the heights of our potential. These men and women who have often struggled to make the world a better place are rightly bestowed with the title of hero. One of my personal heroes is Frederick Douglas. If you haven’t heard of him before  then I suggest looking into his remarkable life and achievements. In a nutshell he was an orator and writer of unbelievable talent who during his life (1818 – 1895) managed to become one of the leaders of the abolitionist movement, which would eventually lead to the eradication of the virus of slavery in North America. What is all the more impressive are his beginnings in life. Douglas was not born into a wealthy family allowing him the time and freedom to fight the good fight on behalf of the African American slaves, no he was a slave himself. His intelligence and eloquence led to him writing numerous books about his life as a slave and as a public speaker he was unsurpassed by even the most highly trained orator. The words he spoke broke down barriers and showed that African Americans were equal to the European Americans in every way.

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress”, this statement of Douglas’s has inspired me almost every day of my life. It epitomises to me the core values that I have been taught in my twenty five years on this planet. The idea is simple, in order to change for the better, whether it be personally or on a larger scale as a society, we must all work hard and push through the difficult times together.  In the work of highly acclaimed Belgian artist Daisy Boman I can see the physical representation of this idea. Her work is as powerful an indictment of the beauty of struggle and the power of human co-operation as anything I have seen in contemporary art. Hers is a vision of a utopian society where perceptions of race, gender, sexuality and class are eradicated and replaced by a simple bond of humanity.

Having been involved in the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and seeing the very worst in human nature she now directs her creative talents towards inspiring the very best. Her figures, known as ‘Bomen’, pull, lift, and support each other in a harmonious dance across the panel-world in which they inhabit. Bomenkind is a society of co-operation where the communal goal is struggled for as one.

We have a selection of Boman’s work in the gallery here in SMS at the moment and I would strongly recommend a visit to see them in the flesh. The size and detail of the pieces make them come to life in a way that cannot be translated fully in an image.

Alexander Millar | Impressions of London

Red Sky At Night
76 x 102 cm
Oil Original

On the 23rd  May, acclaimed artist Alexander Millar will be visiting us in the gallery to present his latest collection of original oil paintings, ‘Impressions of London’.

This collection from Millar, sees the artist develop from a figurative to a landscape painter, capturing the capital in moments of leisure.

Sunlight On St Martins
76 x 102 cm
Oil Original

The dappled canvases remind me of the art from Paris in the late 1880s, before Impressionism has reached its zenith, but while it was taking clear steps past realism into abstraction.   Millar surely references Monet, Turner and Caillebotte, exploring the light and energy of London, from dawn til dusk.

On Golden Pond
76 x 101.5 cm
Oil Original

We are fortunate that a select few pieces from the series are already up in the gallery and are looking forward to the 16th and unveiling the full collection.  Drop by the gallery or contact us for more information.

Dockland View
100 x 120 cm
Oil Original

Artica Fine Art
42 South Molton Street
London, W1K 5RR
E : sms@articagalleries.co.uk       T : 0207 629 2282

Rhys’s Last Word | Dylan and the Train Tracks

As our retrospective exhibition of Bob Dylan’s iconic ‘Drawn Blank Series’ comes rolling to an end I thought it would be a good time to discuss a topic that comes up time and time again when talking to visitors in the gallery. Why is one of the simplest images that Dylan creates, Train Tracks, so magnetic? Why does it draw almost everyone who walks into the gallery towards it? Like a tiny star it gravitates swathes of people and mesmerizes them with its deeply affecting subject matter. On our walls at the moment we have the set of four color ways, red, blue, green and white which each have a very distinctive atmosphere and effect on the viewer which exemplifies Dylan’s mastery of color as subject. Like Rothko and Barnett Newman before him he appreciates the power and emotional resonance of the colors on his pallet.

So why are Train Tracks such a powerful subject matter? Well there are the obvious biographical connections to Dylan. He spent large portions of his adolescence hobo-ing around the States, jumping freight trains, embracing the life of a wandering, folk playing, mystic. This would be one reason for the attraction to the Train Tracks but it doesn’t fully explain the appeal. I have met people who know next to nothing about Dylan’s life and career who are still compelled to stand and stare at the images. They seem to pluck at a subconscious chord deep at the back of the mind where symbolism is stored. It was pointed out to me by a man who is obviously a lot more switched on than me that the single train track is calming to look at,  it symbolically stands for the lack of need to decide. The rails stretch out over the horizon as far as we can see and so allow us to feel a sense of direction and guidance that is unusual in our choice laden society. There is one way, and it is forwards. Its actually a lovely sentiment when you think about it. This point was enforced beyond my ability to disagree when the same customer pointed towards a Lorenzo Quinn sculpture that was sat very near to our Dylan display called ‘Decisions’. The image of a decision to be made reflected by the splitting of train tracks, how could I argue?

The laying of train tracks has quite distinct historical and cultural meaning in the U.S.A and U.K. Here in Britain the train was part and parcel with the drive in the 19th century towards modernity. The Industrial revolution was powered by steam and so was the train. The laying of tracks across Britain heralded the march of progress, the end of an agricultural poor nation and the rise of the industrial rich. In America the story is slightly different. The railroads were initially seen as a threat to the wild, free expanse of the west. After the American civil war many of the defeated confederate soldiers had headed across the country to start new lives away from the victorious union. The blasting of tunnels, laying of rails and connectivity of east and west was an unwelcome intrusion which brought the whole of what we now consider the U.S.A. together as one. In short, the arrival of the train removed the ability of those who wished to, to escape union interference. This early unease with the train was soon overlooked and by the turn of the century Americans had fallen in love with rails. The beat generation writers of the nineteen fifties such as Jack Kerouac and William S Boroughs created images of semi-divine box car hobo heroes who’s adventures were as iconic-ally American as those of Huckleberry Finn. I think the sentiment is summed up perfectly by Kerouac in his novel ‘On The Road’, the protagonist Sal Paradise has this to say “Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.” I appreciate that at this point in the novel they are travelling by car but the sentiment reminds me very much of what I think Dylan is getting at in the Train Tracks image. The rails stretch out into eternity and so everything and anything is possible.