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Welcome to my website. I am
a Commission Artist working from a studio in my garden in
Glorious Bognor Regis by the sea in West Sussex. My paintings
are full of colour and wit, and I work with care on each commission
to create a work of art that is unique, personal and fun.
I can paint anything if I can see it. So the sky is the limit.
When I paint Portraits, I ask each client
to include something from their lives that best describes
them. Something, perhaps, representing interests, ambitions,
achievements or hobbies. This can be anything from a bottle
of wine, to a Karaoke machine, to an elephant, to a pile of
favourite books. Or all of them at once. I like to include
clues for Sitters to remind them of who they were and what
they were doing at the time of the portrait. “The
Ross Family Portrait” is a good example of this.
“The Flying Franckes” is a wonderful
example of a joyful, imaginative and fun portrait of a couple
who are summed up spectacularly well in this painting.
I paint Angels, which I call Every Day
Angels. These are Angels that live alongside us and have the
same Bad Hair Days, the same Happy One Minute Sad The Next
Days and the same Pot Of Tea Days as us. See the “Domestic
Angel”, who looks mutinous at the thought of doing any
more chores around the house. I paint portraits of people
as Angels too, which is very lovely. For example, the “Graduation
Angel” was painted as a portrait of a student as an
Angel on her very important Graduation Day.
I paint Religious themes too. These require
some sideways thinking and some common sense. I am very interested
in the link between the Divine and the Mundane. See the “Annunciation,
Alexia and Katriona” where the Angel Gabriel and the
Virgin Mary are two 13 year old girls who are just being 13
year Old Girls. I asked them to pose for me, and this is what
they did. There is my favourite, “The Practice Annunciation”
a diptych that shows the Angel Gabriel having to practice
his Annunciation Techniques on a couple of local teenage girls,
and getting a typical teenage girl reaction. So he has to
practice some more. I like to explore the themes that you
will see in the Religious Gallery, and ask you if you are
really sure you know what happened. I have painted portraits
in Religious settings. I have painted a whole commissioning
family at the Wedding At Cana which is not shown here. I have
painted a “Queen Of Heaven”, the Virgin Mary in
her 70’s, which is a portrait of my mother.
My Ladies are a bright, large and colourful
celebration of Big Women. They are a series of 11 paintings,
48” x 30”, and are a set of very simple and strong
and bright images.
Jesus on the Tube has its own website,
www.jesusonthetube.co.uk. This is the most well known of my
paintings, and shows a teeny painting, the original is only
5”x 5”, of Jesus being ignored while sitting on
the tube at Knightsbridge Station. It is painted in a semi
Icon style and is used extensively in educational publications,
in religious publications and I have ended up – with
enormous delight – painting portraits of families next
to a Jesus on their choice on a tube train at a station of
their choice. Wonderful. Have a look.
A Graceful Death is an exhibition I have
put together of paintings from the end of a life. The paintings
began with the death of my beloved partner, whom I painted
as he died of cancer in 2007. From this, a deeply moving and
profoundly loving selection of paintings have come together
as A Graceful Death. The paintings are raw, realistic and
full of compassion and love. They show the body as it folds
up and dies, while the power in the spirit of life keeps the
breath going even as the body is fading. I have painted the
same man in the weeks and days before he died, and on the
day of his death. I now include contributions from those who
have been to the exhibition and want someone remembered, whether
in poetry, prose which they have written, or an image which
I will paint and include. Each time the exhibition is shown,
it is bigger by at least one contribution. Until the website
is up and running, please go to www.agracefuldeath.blogpsot.com
for the latest information, images, poetry and news.
Follow my blog at www.antoniarolls.blogspot.com
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