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n t mind the long hours the isolation and the stresses that come with being a representational artist if you can get them you can really get them posted by shaun downey at 12 52 pm 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday february 7 2011 packing up i completed this painting in september just in time to be displayed at art toronto the largest international art exhibition in canada it was my first time exhibiting with engine gallery at the fair and they did a great job of finding a home for the painting during the collector s preview art toronto gathers galleries from toronto montreal new york london and others from around the world to display what new and fresh in the art scene the work covers the widest range possible which i always find refreshing and there seemed to more figurative work this year than last packing up is the second painting from my moving out series which come from my experience of leaving my last apartment i lived there for about five years three of which with my wife kelly grace it was a little house from around 1890 with tons of character like the doorbell that screamed like school bell and made us jump every time it rang kelly and i both used the living room as our studio pictured in the painting an incredible feat given the cramped quarters but we had the house to ourselves and plenty of good times were had under that roof we have separate studios in our new place which is fantastic but i will always think fondly of the days in that little house in the east end and all of the paintings that we created there posted by shaun downey at 11 34 am 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest sunday february 6 2011 jeanne beker here is the portrait i painted of jeanne beker for the episode of star portraits i participated in several months ago she has been involved in the fashion world for over 25 years the face of fashion television and has produced several magazines and fashion lines over the years the filming of the episode was completed in three parts first myself and two other artists lori dell and gillian iles met the crew at a storage facility on the outskirts of town readying ourselves to meet our mystery sitter we weren t told who the celebrity was going to be as it s kept hush hush so they can reveal the sitter to us on camera and film our reactions i was excited to see jeanne walk down the stairs i recognized her instantly which was a relief i was worried that i would not be familiar with our model and have to mug a fake smile when they walked out we had three hours to draw her from life and then a few minutes at the end to take some reference photos it was difficult to get any real drawing done as the sitter is being interviewed at the same time but it was a good opportunity to get to know jeanne a little more beyond what i ve seen on television she was very sweet and i liked that she had maintained a humble attitude i pride myself on my work ethic so i have a great deal of respect for anyone who puts in those long hours to get to where they need to go once back at my studio i had two weeks to complete the portrait usually i would spend at least twice that amount of time on a painting so i wasted no time and got to it right away i wanted to choose a pose that expressed her quiet side something that i caught a glimpse of during our sitting we all have our exterior personalities but in my work i try to reveal the silent nature of us capturing the moments when we are by ourselves and able to concentrate on our own thoughts jeanne especially has to maintain a slick exterior interviewing models and designers in the whirlwind that is the fashion world must be exhausting and she has to smile all the way through it i thought that if i could crack through that exterior and reveal something more personal it would be a better representation of her once the paintings were finished the artists and the crew met at the royal york hotel to reveal the portraits to jeanne she was to choose one for her own collection and the other two were to be auctioned off to benefit the charity of her choice as we waited in the next room in anticipation of her reaction i wondered if she would choose my portrait or prefer something that more closely expressed the surface of her public persona after a half hour went by we were wondering what was happening in the next room the host of star portraits the lovely and charming louise pitre emerged from the room with tears in her eyes jeanne had been overwhelmed by our paintings was in tears herself and was having a very difficult time deciding on which painting she would like to keep twenty more minutes went by and we were finally allowed into the room where jeanne had just spent nearly an hour contemplating our paintings i was overjoyed at her reaction the greatest compliment i can receive as and artist is an intense emotional reaction from the viewer when first seeing my painting jeanne finally chose lori dell s portrait but was so moved by all three portraits that she donated money to the charities herself and kept all three paintings for her collection filming the show was an extremely rewarding experience for me at the wrap party for the show i spoke with nearly all of the artists and thoroughly enjoyed viewing all of the portraits created for this very unique program being a representational painter can be a very lonely existence sometimes long hours in the studio and little time to get out can drive me a bit batty but being amongst my peers and being part of star portraits gave me a renewed sense of pride in what i do click here to visit the star portraits website to view the portraits and find out more about the show posted by shaun downey at 7 50 am 3 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest wednesday october 6 2010 me tv in it s second season star portraits is quickly becoming one of the most popular shows on bravo as the three artists chosen to paint a portrait of a canadian celebrity go about their process the show documents an initial sitting visits each artist in their studio as they work on the painting and captures the sitter s reaction to the work as they are unveiled one at a time it is quite an engaging half hour of television and it s good to see some solid content out there both my wife kelly and i were fortunate enough to be invited on the show and we both had an amazing time being a part of it kelly met with and painted the incredible david suzuki during the season premiere you can watch it here my celebrity sitter was the one and only jeanne beker a television fashion icon a familiar face to anyone my age who grew up watching toronto s city tv it was a bit a challenge getting the painting done in the two weeks we were given but i kept things simple and was pleased with the result jeanne reacted quite strongly to the portraits i can t wait to see the show my episode airs october 30th at 8pm on bravo click here to go to the star portraits website for more info it s a great show and worth watching every episode posted by shaun downey at 3 09 pm 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest keep it goin full steam it s has been a wonderful few months we are all settled into our new studios and working at a feverish pace this is my latest painting last glance which is the first in a series of four paintings detailing the experience of moving out from our last apartment we lived there for over 5 years and although our new place is larger and in a spiffier neighbourhood i will always have fond memories about our little house on sackville st posted by shaun downey at 2 47 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest saturday august 21 2010 first video with just under a month left until the bp portrait award 2010 leaves the national portrait gallery i thought it would be a good time to post the video kelly and i have been working on it covers our time in london visiting the exhibition including a brief tour of the fantastic paintings that made up this years show we had a blast putting it together i hope you enjoy it http www youtube com watch v go8ju3pleky posted by shaun downey at 12 00 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest saturday august 7 2010 london in june toronto star in late june kelly and i visited london for the private view of the 2010 bp portrait award i was very pleased to be exhibited in the show and was ecstatic when i learned that my painting would be used for the majority of the promotional material my painting blue coco was used for the gallery guide on posters placed throughout the city on postcards the cover of the exhibition catalogue and on a huge banner draping the front of the national portrait gallery it was a surreal experience to see my painting all over london where the show is exhibited until september 19th before travelling to the usher gallery in lincoln we had an incredible time it was truly an amazing experience and the high light of my career thus far appreciation for realist painting in london runs hot and was on a level that i had not experienced before everyone at the gallery was so interested from the shop workers to the front desk to the security guards we met a dozen or so of the other exhibiting artists and got a chance to view my painting with my model dearbhail coco bracken roche who is living in london and meet her wonderful parents and handsome fella joel last sunday toronto art critic murray whyte put the icing on the cake for me he wrote an article about my experience speaking with both myself and dearbhail which was featured on the front page of the toronto star i have since received scores of emails from people congratulating me from all over ontario and throughout the uk thanks everyone you can read the article here http www thestar com news world article 842834 toronto artist s perfect portrait dazzles london thank you to dearbhail s father jim roche for bringing 0ur story to the attention of murray this whole experience has given me a renewed push to hunker down and do my best work a truly inspiring few months that i will never forget posted by shaun downey at 7 49 am 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest wednesday april 14 2010 bp portrait award 2010 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 posted by shaun downey at 6 12 pm 10 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest saturday february 6 2010 life s a beach right now i m busy working on a few projects this is the under painting for a commission i m doing for an old friend she has always loved this image taken of her parents in their youth and soon she ll have a 24 x 33 inch oil painting of it to enjoy at her new place it will be a full colour piece but this time instead of completing a fully rendered drawing i blocked it in directly on the canvas with burnt umber and white i must say that i ve had a blast working on it those grins are keeping me smiling right through the chill of winter that and the fact that we re moving to a much larger studio on april 1st there are smiles all around these days posted by shaun downey at 1 35 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels beach commission under painting monday january 18 2010 twenty ten high five welcome 2010 here are the studies for my take on the adam and eve story starring kelly and myself we shot the photo reference in my backyard making sure our next door neighbour wasn t home uploading photos of us to his flicker page i ve done scores of paintings of kelly and a few self portraits but i ve never painted us both into the same work i thought it would be cool to make a painting that freezes us in this point in time so we can be reminded of life in our little house being in our thirties and having one chin each being the first works of the new year i brought the drawings to a higher level of finish than i usually do these ones are 2b graphite in a click pencil on a smooth greyish paper posted by shaun downey at 5 05 pm 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest labels adam and eve drawing graphite studies thursday august 20 2009 brand spankin new website new drawing i finally got off my keyster and redesigned my website i ditched my original idea of another dark background set up and decided to use a handsome mid toned grey with a clean design aesthetic after watching the documentary helvetica a wonderfully geeky look at the world s most ubiquitous font i felt that it would be an appropriate choice for my site it is a clean non descriptive little fella and doesn t distract from the work like many other more decorative fonts do so now the font you see on your tax forms both canada and the u s can point you in the direction of my drawings and paintings instead of to the box with the gut wrenching amount owing box check it out www shaundowney com as art toronto 2009 quickly approaches i ve finished a study drawing for my latest canvas i wanted to create a painting with multiple figures and luckily found a great location for the photo shoot 10 minutes before my models sho...