Every child loves to draw pictures and I had a real passion for it as soon as I could hold a crayon. It runs in the blood you see , both my grandfather and his brother started painting in their retirement; both successfully selling their works. Even dating back to my great-great grandfather, Archibald Skirving, who was a highly acclaimed Scottish painter famed for his portrait of Robbie Burns.
Thanks to a love of Rock and Roll I spent my childhood drawing pictures of musical heroes such as Little Richard and Elvis, but on reaching my teens all this alas fell by the wayside as 'Teddy Boy Tearaway Time' took ove
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By twenty, music had become everything to me and together with like minded friend and guitarist, Chris Shirley, we formed the band 'King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys', the start of twenty years ongoing musical mayhem and enough tales to fill a book (future project). As our manager says 'the most fun you can have with your clothes on'.
The fine arts were all but forgotten until one day three and a half years ago I signed up for a course on the history of art. Run by Birmingham artist, Rob Davies, it covered European art and all its movements.
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I found his talks absolutely fascinating and the man himself with his vast knowledge and his love of the subject totally inspiring. I developed not only a rabid thirst for a deeper understanding of the Great Painters and their works but a need to paint myself.
I took up oil painting one and a half years ago and am desperately trying to make up for lost time. Walking into the first art appreciation class was a completely life changing experience. My passion for art grows constantly stronger and my need to paint all consuming. |
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Artist Profile:
Mark Skirving
b. 1966, Wednesbury
"Portraits are fixed in time and space, at a selected angle of vision, and yet need to convey intensity and be revealing. They should have impact at a single glance, and compel the observer to return to them again and again.
The portrait should display the likeness of the subject but allow character and personality (what Leonardo da Vinci called " the motions of the inner mind") to show through. I find myself drawn to human beings and to figure and face"
---- so I love to paint portraits ---- |
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