Collection: Hamish Blakely Artist Biography and Art Gallery Collection

Hamish Blakely is a British artist who creates art with an impeccable use of light and shadow that makes his portraits captivating and mysterious. Born in Canterbury, England in 1968 he developed an interest in art from an early age. Coming from a theatrical background he grew up sketching and drawing as his original expression. He would draw an awful lot, trying to emulate other artists, to understand how they created what they did; but sketching it was, and remained to be, until he found the mettle to use color. He studied illustration at Wimbledon School of Art and completed his degree at Kingston University shortly after which he became a professional illustrator. During this time his clients included The Body Shop, British Telecom and Cable and Wireless and he was chosen to paint two front covers for the world renowned author of ‘Schindler’s List’, Thomas Keneally.  At the same time, Hamish Blakely, and his wife Gail, set up and curated their own shows in London, leading to a solo display in the Thomas Kettle Gallery in Covent Garden. The entire collection showed an increasing interest in physicality and lighting that were to become the hallmarks of his later work. It was acrylics that Blakely first used for painting  throughout the first few years and then, some years later, the transition to oils seemed inevitable and this too was to become another turning point in his distinctive style. Blakely's first serious painting was a portrait of his father, which ignited his love for the medium. After this, he gave up sketching and was drawn to painting figurative work. Following the completion of his studies, Hamish Blakely became an illustrator, for which he received a national award.

Hamish Blakely was a relative late-comer to contemporary art, despite reveling in it as a youngster, where he’d wile away hours creating the likeness (or copying for want of a better word) of any picture that appealed to him at the time. As a means to an end, he looks back on this stressing that it was purely a way in which to absorb some idea of technique, and nothing more. Inspired by the revered likes of Caravaggio, Degas and Velazquez among other famous artists, Blakely goes to great lengths to underline the fact that he has never had any interest whatsoever in emulating the work of an artist who’s gone before in any way, shape or form.  Delving beneath the highly polished and resolutely finished surface of a typical Hamish Blakely piece and the artist admits that the process leading up to this is quite the opposite. Apparently when starting the painting, Blakely doesn’t draw or plan the composition; and whilst this approach can and does on occasion cause issues, he insists that he’s continually composing the piece until such time as it’s finished. Agreeing that it’s a risky business, Blakely turns this into another positive once more by implying that this circumspect angle of creative attack seems to lend a transient nature to the finished visual article and actively prevents it from appearing, perverse as it may sound, too polished.