ArtHouse Jersey is extremely proud to announce the next in their series of live online art workshops, this time with internationally renowned contemporary artist and painter Graham Dean. The live ‘Contemporary figurative painting Masterclass with Graham Dean’ will focus on figurative painting and will take place on Friday 20 November 2020 at 7pm on Zoom.
During this unique session Graham Dean will create a small watercolour figure from a photograph. Participants will be given access to the image in advance of the class, then be invited to paint live along with Graham on the night. Afterwards he will show participants how he collages and assembles his work using torn parts of other painted images. This will be a magical and rare insight into his practice as the class witnesses the work take shape. He will then invite everyone to show their work and to ask questions. This session will be relaxed and informal.
About Graham Dean
Graham Dean was born in 1951, in Merseyside. He gained his education at the Liard School of Art, Birkenhead and Bristol Polytechnic, Faculty of Art and Design. After moving to London, he worked as a freelancer illustrating book jackets until he joined a gallery which enabled him to become a full-time painter. He now lives and works near the sea in Brighton, England, and in the countryside of Umbria, Italy. His current exhibitions can be found on display worldwide at The Royal Academy Summer Show, The Art and Antiques Art fair, Baarn, The Netherlands, Art Paris, Grand Palais Paris, Qingdao Art Museum,China and Gallery 874 Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Dean is essentially a painter of identity. But more than the identity of the body, it is the identity of the soul as evoked by using sumptuous watercolours. He loves oddball characters who voluntarily use their bodies often in extreme situations. His images are recomposed in a creative alchemy, mixing people, body parts and time itself.
He considers himself to be a contemporary painter running parallel to other art forms, satisfied moving along in the margins of familiar styles. As the artist says, his paintings are about what is alive right now but his method references to the past at the same time. His lavish watercolors reveal him as a painter of identity, both body and soul.
Dean’s work has been exhibited worldwide and the result of his 30 year long artistic career is a part of many private and public collection. Although the works are representational, they escape the illustrational to reach a universal form from something deeply personal. He has also used buildings, mysterious ships, confessionals in churches, forests and trains, to enhance these atmospheric moods.
ArtHouse Jersey producer Natasha Dettman said: “I was recently introduced to Graham Dean’s work by a friend of the artist and the ethereal beauty of the figures instantly resonated with me. I’m delighted that we can work together on delivering this rare class for budding and established artists alike. To offer this depth of insight into the working practices of an artist of Graham’s calibre is a real treat for us all. The chance to paint in unison will create a very distinctive and memorable artistic experience.”
Those taking part in ’Contemporary figurative painting Masterclass with Graham Dean’ should come to the class with paper, watercolours and a variety of brushes.
Tickets can be purchased on via this link or on the ArtHouse website. Participants will be contacted with further details about the mechanics of the class and exactly how it will work via email in plenty of time.
