The Picture of Rupert Alexander: The Piece of an Artist Within Another
Oil painter, Rupert Alexander brings us his latest commission of Hon. Freddie Strutt to the forefront. Placing a piece of himself within every paint stoke.
By Emma Griffiths
I
’ve been climbing back to my originality lately, to the version of myself that sees stars instead of blurred shapes. The kind of originality that comes from original thought in: books, magazines, conversations and oil-paintings, and not from a screen. Induced by a lack of feeling for my surroundings and myself, I knew my life had altered momentarily. That a new awakening was ready to fill this void.
That awakening was Rupert Alexanders’ painting of ‘Hon. Freddie Strutt.’
Only this year did I read a striking, classic novel that soon came to be one of my favourite fictions – I loved it so, that an extra copy of it was bought for me for my birthday – with a prettier bound cover of course.
“The Picture of Dorian Grey” written by Oscar Wilde. Depicted by the words of Wilde immerses the face, the portraiture of Dorian Grey, a malicious character whose portrait becomes evermore devilish the more he’s corrupted by sin.
When looking at this portrait of Hon. Freddie Strutt, I think of Dorian Grey and in a fond manner. Not because it’s my favourite book but from the joy from which an artist could create something that my mind already seemed to know. A structured jawline, blue flecked eyes, blonde hair – a face familiar and friendly to my mind. I do not believe Hon. Freddie Strutt to, of course be the Dorian Gray with malice and wealth and greed. But I see an artist that makes me understand how the character felt, looking at such artistry, to witness a true master of paint and brush.
Each stroke of paint has intention and with that intention we see the figure of the handsome man in flushing colour oil-paint. We see his gaze reflecting his thoughts, we see charisma and personality thrusting out of the canvas, we see the pain, the love, the life, the humanity.
Alone that’s all a painter ever really needs to show, a piece of himself within another.
Rupert Alexander born from a generation of artists, leads forward with a proud step since his learning days at the Chelsea College of Art. Now exhibiting in London at The Fine Art Commissions Gallery this June 22nd- July 3rd – the British phenomenon formulates our gasps and outward affection for his beaming works of portraiture. This summer exhibition not only demonstrates something old, anew but a recognition that humanity is still hanging on the walls within. Our souls, unlike Dorian Grey are intact and bleeding out more art and culture than ever before. New, old, modern, contemporary, minimalist, maximalist, expressionist, guts and glory, wicked and kind. The world of art continues on like the characters we read within books, like the pictures we adhere in our minds, like precious moments in time.
It is works of art like these that painstakingly assure me that humanity exists for the feeling, to feel it all.
Cherub Magazine
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