Daniel Hughes
Home: Kingston, Ontario
Title: Shayne
Media: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 101.6 x 76.2 cm
Website: danielhughes.ca
Artist Statement
This painting is of the sculptor Shayne Dark. He has been a subject in my work over the past few years and I continually find new ways of painting him based on his well-lived face, large personality and passion for his art. This particular painting is one of my favorites.
My work is about process and my reaction to the subjects of my paintings. I try to give importance to everything in the picture and to how light passes over and around the subject. Mark making and measuring to deal with proportion and structure become of paramount importance to me. Lately some of the “marks” have made their way into my final work. The late Sir William Coldstream of the Slade School preached these ideas and was the teacher of some of London’s great contemporary figurative painters such as Euan Uglow and Lucien Freud. It is his philosophy that moves my work and inspires me to maintain a true record of events when creating a piece. It is difficult to work with the figure in the contemporary art world without it feeling redundant. However there are painters that have taken figurative art to new and exciting places. I aspire to be one of these painters.
Biography
I am a graduate of the New York Academy of Art and OCADU and was the recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Award in 1991 and 1995. I have had solo shows throughout Canada, London, England and the U.S., including New York, NY and Santa Fe, NM.
Most recently I was included in the travelling group show “Face to Face, Artists’ Self-Portraits from the collection of Jackye and Curtis Finch, Jr.” This show was first at the Arkansas Art Centre in Little Rock, Arkansas and moved on to the Baker Museum in Naples Florida. In 2005 I was included in the BP portrait prize at the National Portrait Gallery of London and the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland.
My work is also included in the publication “500 Portraits” by Sandy Nairne, Director of the National Portrait Gallery of London.