Victoria Rees

The Dave portraits .

In march 2012 I asked Dave Newman, my farmer neighbour if he would consider sitting for a quick portrait whist having a cup of tea. To my delight he said yes. I am sure of the date because Dave keeps a dairy & he has logged what the weather was that day & what we had for tea.

Twelve years ago was the beginning of an unexpected friendship and what would become a large & ongoing collection of small portraits all in a 28x24cms format and
done very quickly, directly in oil paint on a gessoed board.

While painting Dave, I began to understand the life of a small farmer doing his best to look after his land in a way that enhances the flora & fauna; giving many of us in the Wotton under Edge area a beautiful place to walk.
Dave in turn has come to know about the life of an artist.

On April 12th 2022 Dave announced at one of our tuesday afternoon portrait session that he had sold the farm, I was floored, he had come most weeks to sit for 11 years. Of course we had discussed the increasing frustrations of running a farm but ...
A brave decision had been made & change was happening even if did not want it to.

Dave now lives in Wotton Under Edge and still walks up to my studio to sit each week, he now has time to write short stories, all in a 100 word format. He reads them to me during our sittings, they are witty, thought provoking and informed by his life as a farmer.

This large collection of small portraits have become complete answers in them selves.

Artist’s statement:

VIctoria Rees is based on the Cotswold Edge, near Bristol, where she has had her studio for 35 years. She trained at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford, BA and was awarded the Jack Goldhill award for 3 years to the Royal Academy Schools. Post graduate.

Rees’s working practice has centred around the the people that have come to sit in her studio. Amy, a retired road sweeper, came every week for many years to sit for Rees and it was the bright colours she chose to wear for these portraits which helped Rees to see colour as form in its own right. This understanding has been a strong continuum throughout her work to date.

Her large painting ‘Amy’, oil on canvas, 180x170 cms was painted soon after leaving the RA Schools and was hung in the BP exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. It was also shortlisted for the Travel Award and selected for the touring exhibition to Aberdeen city art gallery. The Poet UA Fanthorpe dedicated her poem ‘Amy Sits’ to this painting.
All Rees’s large paintings are informed and nourished by her continuing practice of The quick Portraits, painted in oil on a 28 x 24 cms format, a project which started in 2012 with Dave, a farmer neighbour coming to sit on Tuesday afternoons . He has kept a dairy of the weather, what he had for tea & the general topic of conversation during these weekly sittings. Dave now writes short stories, all 100 words, which he reads out during his sittings.

In the short film, (press link) : ‘Filmainting Dave’ by Finn Fogelberg, some of these small oil portraits can be seen on the racks in Rees’s studio.

The 45 minute portrait practice began for Rees as a means of becoming more fluent in portrait painting but, in fact, this now large collection of small portraits have turned into complete answers in themselves.

An unexpected bonus of this practice has been to allow Rees to quickly immerse herself into a community when traveling and derive a strong sense of place. People are happy to give 45mins to sit & chat while having a portrait painted.

Rees was a “Fellow” at the Heliker-LaHotan Foundation, USA (2012- 2013- 2017), she explained: ‘At the time there was a visceral atmosphere in the States, with families deeply divided by politics, and my studio became a safe place to sit and voice their concerns. There is a vulnerability for both the artist and the sitter but, through the sitting process, trust is built up and an exchange of understanding happens.’

It was while artist in residence at Garsington Opera that Rees was first asked to design a textile to celebrate the opera house’s productions. The success of her ‘Red Dress’ stole has led to an annual commission from 2012 and since then working with textiles has become a constant part of Rees’s practice. She went on to design for The International Opera Awards, Cheltenham Jazz Festival and exhibited her ‘Cunning little vixen’ textile hanging in the Silk Museum, Lebanon. In 2022 Rees was commissioned to design and produce a limited edition of a silk squares for Garsington Operas 2022 production of Dvorak’ Opera Rusalka.

CV in brief:

Exhibitions

recent

. ‘ Discerning eye ‘ exhibtion london, 2024. two portraits chosen by judge & collector Carol Leonard.

‘Night shift’ self portrait painting 2023 , accepted for the Ruth Borchard artists self portrait exhibition . (for the third time).
Selected for the 2023 RWA 170 open.
below cv in brief
Cadogan Contemporary , solo exhibition, Royal Academy Summer Show, Scottish Gallery, London, Discerning Eye, Critic's Choice, Beaux Art, Bath, Critic's Choice.
BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London. Aberdeen City Art Gallery, Scotland. Anthony Hepworth Fine Art, Islington Art Fair, London
Peter Greenham, Memorial Exhibition, London
Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Solo Exhibition
The North Wall Gallery, Oxford, solo exhibition
Piano Noble - Kings Place, Ruth Borchard Exhibition
The Silk Museum, Bous , Lebanon

Awards:

The Goghill Landscape award. The Jack Goldhill award to RA Schools for 3 yrs Post grad. The David Murray Landscape award,.The Spectator and Adam company award.

Reviews:

Featured in Country life, The Oxford Times, The Daily Telegraph

Residencies:

Garsington Opera, The Heliker-LaHotan foundation USA 2012-13-17, Cheltenham jazz festival AIR, 2018

Public Collections:

TSB PLC, Farrer Brown Institute of Histopathology, Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.

Television:

In Conversation with poet U A Fanthorpe  (West Foot Forward) .
BBC radio , interview for Cheltenham Jazz Festival.

Talks:

"The Southbank Sinfonia and Jesus Jones drawings, how my practice as a fine artist has influenced my textiles" @ The North Wall Theatre, Oxford to coincide with solo exhibition & the young Britten in Oxford festival 2018.
Brighton University, visiting artist's talks: ‘The Southbank Sinfonia and Jesus Jones drawings, how my practice as a fine artist has influenced my textiles.’

Victoria Rees

The Dave portraits .

In march 2012 I asked Dave Newman, my farmer neighbour if he would consider sitting for a quick portrait whist having a cup of tea. To my delight he said yes. I am sure of the date because Dave keeps a dairy & he has logged what the weather was that day & what we had for tea.

Twelve years ago was the beginning of an unexpected friendship and what would become a large & ongoing collection of small portraits all in a 28x24cms format and done very quickly, directly in oil paint on a gessoed board.

While painting Dave, I began to understand the life of a small farmer doing his best to look after his land in a way that enhances the flora & fauna; giving many of us in the Wotton under Edge area a beautiful place to walk. Dave in turn has come to know about the life of an artist.

Dave now lives in Wotton Under Edge and still walks up to my studio to sit each week, he now has time to write short stories, all in a 100 word format. He reads them to me during our sittings, they are witty, thought provoking and informed by his life as a farmer.

This large collection of small portraits have become complete answers in them selves.

Artist’s statement:

VIctoria Rees is based on the Cotswold Edge, near Bristol, where she has had her studio for 35 years. She trained at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford, BA and was awarded the Jack Goldhill award for 3 years to the Royal Academy Schools. Post graduate.

In the short film, (press link) : ‘Filmainting Dave’ by Finn Fogelberg, some of these small oil portraits can be seen on the racks in Rees’s studio.

The 45 minute portrait practice began for Rees as a means of becoming more fluent in portrait painting but, in fact, this now large collection of small portraits have turned into complete answers in themselves.

An unexpected bonus of this practice has been to allow Rees to quickly immerse herself into a community when traveling and derive a strong sense of place. People are happy to give 45mins to sit & chat while having a portrait painted.

Victoria Rees

Twelve years ago was the beginning of an unexpected friendship and what would become a large & ongoing collection of small portraits all in a 28x24cms format and
done very quickly, directly in oil paint on a gessoed board.

While painting Dave, I began to understand the life of a small farmer doing his best to look after his land in a way that enhances the flora & fauna; giving many of us in the Wotton under Edge area a beautiful place to walk.
Dave in turn has come to know about the life of an artist.