Colin Orchard RBA:In Time and Place

From 19th October to 15th November 2013 New Craftsman Gallery are presenting an exhibition of paintings by Colin Orchard, member of the Royal Society of British Artists, along with sculpture by Joanna Wason.

Born in Surrey in 1935, Orchard had no formal art training and began his career as a messenger in the art department of The Times and then as a typographer and layout artist. He also went on to produce humorous illustrations for The Times, Shell, ICI, WH Smith, Sony and other major companies. From 1963 to 1973 he was Art Director for Letraset International, then freelanced as a graphic designer until 1983 when he moved to St Ives and became a full time painter. He has exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions and galleries including David Messum, Medici, Walker Galleries, Ainscough and New Grafton. In 2007 he was elected a member of the RBA upon winning the Artist award at their exhibition that same year.

Orchard’s work is strongly influenced by Impressionist painters such as Walter Sickert and Jean-Edouard Vuillard, an original member of the Nabis, together with Bonnard and Roussel. The starting point for works in this show are two black and white portrait photographs, one of Marcel Aron and Tristram Bernard, the other of Pierre and Martha Bonnard, both taken by Vuillard. The painting on the exhibition catalogue cover is based on a photograph of Roussel and Vuillard taken in Venice in the first part of the 20th century.

In his first exhibition for almost three years, this collection of entirely fictitious portraits placed in imaginary settings, together with paintings of Venice, Cornwall, London and Suffolk, imbue contemporary subject matter with the sense of history inferred by fin-de-siecle painting.

The show will be accompanied by a collection of sculpture by Joanna Wason.

For further information contact:
New Craftsman Gallery, 24 Fore Street, St Ives, TR26 1HE
Tel. 01736 795652
info@newcraftsmanstives.com
www.newcraftsmanstives.com