Commission a portrait from the Lots Road Group Beyond the Door exhibitors
Beyond the door – the portraits
Month: July 2021
Group exhibition and camraderie
On the eve of International Friendship Day Art & Soul portraiture and music art blogger, and LRG member, Stella Tooth looks at camraderie and the joy and power of exhibiting as a group of artists.
She says, “As one of the founding members of the Lots Road Group of portrait artists I’m delighted – for the first time since lockdown last March – that we are able, once more, to exhibit together again.
Conceived in the dark days of the first lockdown on Zoom, a technology which was new to us (remember that?) we came together around an idea sparked by a FT article ‘The Pandemic is a portal‘ by Arundhati Roy.“
The author said: “Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal…”
She went on to say we could carry on in the way we had with our avaricious ways or we can walk through it ready to imagine and fight for another world. We decided that that would be our theme.
If you would like to read the full blog please click here.
To see our ‘Beyond the door’ online catalogue click here.
PV Beyond the door a great success!
A huge thank you to more than a hundred of you who attended our ‘Beyond the door’ exhibition tonight.
Here are some of our artists with their paintings snd their sitters.
The exhibition runs until Saturday at the Bermondsey Project Space near London Bridge.
Portrait of world-famous explorer – and Covid-19 survivor – Robin Hanbury-Tenison featured in new London exhibition
A portrait in oils of Robin Hanbury-Tenison, world famous explorer, President of Survival International, re-wilder of the Cornish countryside – and COVID-19 survivor, features in a new London exhibition which opens next week.
The portrait, by Sarah Reynolds of the Lots Road Group will be on show at the Bermondsey Project Space – a gallery in the heart of Bermondsey’s vibrant artistic area – from Tuesday 27-Saturday 31 July from 11am-6pm.
‘Beyond the Door’ will reflect on the unprecedented times we have been living through. It will feature portraits by 15 artists in the group generated during the pandemic when our own front doors have defined the way we live. The doors to our homes have been both bulwarks against a dangerous world and a means of escape from confinement. The word ‘beyond’ in the title of the exhibition is deliberately ambiguous, allowing exploration of both interior and exterior worlds through the medium of portraiture. Artists have chosen subjects whose experiences are representative of the unfamiliar limbo through which we have all been passing. These include people who have had Covid, those we have been locked down with, those we have only seen on Zoom or Facetime, fellow out of work creatives – and ourselves – never has there been a more appropriate time for self portraits!
This year the group has invited a guest artist to join them, Melissa Scott-Miller RP, NEAC, RBA. Scott-Miller is an acclaimed artist specialising in portraits and urban landscapes – which often include elements of portraiture. Her work is therefore the embodiment of the dual interior and exterior theme of this exhibition. She has continued her usual practice of painting landscapes en plein air during the pandemic so far as humanly possible and has also worked at home including creating a portrait for this exhibition. In another innovation this year the group will be showing a selection of other recent work reflecting the diversity of members’ practices and their preoccupations during the past year.
The exhibition catalogue will continue the Lots Road Group’s usual practice of including a narrative with each portrait, giving both artist and sitter a voice – something that makes the group unique. The catalogue is introduced by Robin Hanbury-Tenison.
Hanbury-Tenison’s was the embodiment of an outdoor life until he had to spend seven weeks in hospital with minimal chance of survival. He credits a visit to the hospital garden as the turning point in his recovery and is now raising funds for more such healing gardens, a cause to which the Lots Road Group will encourage contributions at this exhibition. Click here for his fundraising page.
Exhibiting artists:Rebecca Asghar, Alla Broeksmit, Martin Burrough, Matt Collis, Hero Johnson, Christine Klein, Sharon Low, Fiona Mitchell, Maureen Nathan, Hilary Puxley, Colleen Quill, Lucinda Rendall, Sarah Reynolds, Mark Stevenson, Stella Tooth
Media previews:
Beyond the door
Conceived on Zoom in the first few weeks of the pandemic, The Lots Road Group’s ‘Beyond the door’ exhibition has been a long time coming. But our fantastic designer member Sarah Reynolds has now created this poster and work is progressing apace on our online catalogue.
The exhibition, to be held at the Bermondsey Project Space opposite The White Cube, will feature portraits by 15 artists in the group and contemplates life on both sides of the doors that have defined our lives during the last eighteen months, both as protection from a hostile outside world and the means of escape from confinement.
The Lots Road Group studied portraiture The Heatherley School Of Fine Art ‘Our portrait Your story’ sums up our approach to portraiture where, uniquely for a group, we tell the story of our sitters in words as well as picture. In this way we hope to explain the importance and unique qualities of portraiture in the age of photography.
Portraiture allows you to see yourself through the prism of the artist’s eye… and It protects your image through time. Through our regular shows and commissions, we have asked what portraiture means to you. And you have told us you want us to record moments of transition – births, childhood, leaving home, weddings and posthumous portraits to keep treasured memories alive. In addition, some of you like us to work from agreed photographs where others, less time-starved perhaps, enjoy the experience of sitting. But whatever your preference, one thing’s for sure: collaboration is at the heart of a portrait and we welcome such collaboration with you.
Click here to learn more.
The Lots Road Group 