HUGO GRENVILLE

£8,500

oil on canvas

36" x 28"

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ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Born in 1958, Grenville first exhibited in London at the Chelsea Arts Society at the age of 15, although it took him another 14 years to become a full time painter.

After leaving school he travelled the Hippy Trail to India, ran out of money, joined the Coldstream Guards and served as an officer in Northern Ireland, West Africa, during the Civil War in Rhodesia, and finally in the British Army of the Rhine. During his military career he continued to paint whenever possible, going on to study part-time at Chelsea School of Art and Heatherley's.
He finally submitted to the need to paint full time in 1989 and has since held a number of solo exhibitions (including Messum's in Cork Street, London and Wally Findlay International in New York and Palm Beach).
Referring to himself as a Romantic, Hugo acknowledges a fascination with pattern and colour that places him in the tradition of Matisse. The figure subjects and the everyday objects that surround them in his painting express joy in life, light and colour. His paintings evoke a sense of something dreamed or remembered rather than directly observed. Layers of feeling peel back to disclose a spiritual intensity.
He has painted portraits of leading figures including the late Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Runcie and the counter-tenor Michael Chance in the role of Orpheus at the English National Opera, has been an Official War Artist in Bosnia, has written regularly for The Artist magazine, and lectures in London and at his summer school on Colour and Twentieth Century Painting.