2015, Folly, Egg tempera on antique chestnut, 700 x 700 mm.
Bayliss Brown has exhibited in UK, Italy, USA and China. In 2016 his HAPTION project (www.haptionproject.com) was nominated for the Deutsche Bank Award: it pioneered a new art form exploiting the sense of touch, for people both sighted and those with visual loss, to experiencing a painting. The project culminated in his London exhibition GESTURE - To touch the untouchable at the Stadium Suite overlooking the Olympic Park to coincide with the 2017 Para-Olympic and World Athletic Championships. His last supper painting The Weight of Blood was longlisted for the BP National Portrait award (2015) with a solo exhibition in Westminster Cathedral in 2016 (www.alastsupper.com).
Drawing inspiration from historical materials and methods, his research concerns how his practice can be reconciled and belong to 21st century painting but maintain connection to the past. His deep appreciation and understanding of a painting’s anatomy promotes a modus operandi that blurs the boundaries between painting and sculpture; and has led him to put historical paintings literally under the microscope to breathe new life into them for a contemporary audience – Reinterpreting the topography of patina and craquelure by transposing their imagery into new media and works. His enquiry is not as an historian in search of iconography, but as a maker; looking for passages of paint, gesture of line, subtleties of surface that offer possibilities and impetus to the creative process.
Drawing inspiration from historical materials and methods, his research concerns how his practice can be reconciled and belong to 21st century painting but maintain connection to the past. His deep appreciation and understanding of a painting’s anatomy promotes a modus operandi that blurs the boundaries between painting and sculpture; and has led him to put historical paintings literally under the microscope to breathe new life into them for a contemporary audience – Reinterpreting the topography of patina and craquelure by transposing their imagery into new media and works. His enquiry is not as an historian in search of iconography, but as a maker; looking for passages of paint, gesture of line, subtleties of surface that offer possibilities and impetus to the creative process.
Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2019
Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1
5 - 17 March 2019, 10am - 5pm daily, admission free.
2018, Once a loved child, Tempera on panel, 600 x 780 mm
I met this dignified man by chance in central London and was transfixed by his pathos. He is surrounded by the gaiety of colours of modern consumerism but unaffected by it. His life centres around the companionship of his well-looked after dogs with all his possessions strapped on a pedal bicycle. The group are within the contemporary world (and indeed indicative of an often forgotten segment of society - the homeless), but separated from it. It is a study of the present yet a continuum with historical representations of humility and conjures up references to renaissance paintings such as that of St. Francis.
Once a loved child has been shortlisted for the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize which was created in 2005 by the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers and the Lynn Foundation to encourage the very best creative representational painting and promote the skill of draftsmanship and is one of the most prestigious awards to artists in the UK. More information is available at www.lynnpainterstainersprize.org.uk
Once a loved child has been shortlisted for the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize which was created in 2005 by the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers and the Lynn Foundation to encourage the very best creative representational painting and promote the skill of draftsmanship and is one of the most prestigious awards to artists in the UK. More information is available at www.lynnpainterstainersprize.org.uk