It has to be admitted that British Impressionists is a somewhat misleading title. After all, correctly it refers to those artists painting towards the end of the nineteenth century and well into the early twentieth that were influenced directly by the French Impressionists a decade earlier. However, as with the term Scottish Colourists, of which strictly there were only ever four, the epithet ‘British Impressionism’ has been successfully appropriated by a new generation of contemporary painters practicing a century later.
This exhibition has become a regular fixture in the Panter & Hall calendar. An excuse to show a selection of British representational painters working in traditional techniques, all with the shared aim of producing an object of beauty. To our core of gallery artist regulars, we have added two new painters, Martin Yeoman and Rob Pittam. Martin is a very well-established figurative painter who enjoys a high-profile career as a portrait painter to the great and the good. Rob is a Cornish painter who began as an illustrator and hence brings a different dimension to the group, with his highly finished, tighter style.
While working very much in their own unique styles all these painters share the lightness of touch and love of depicting light and shade that has characterised the traditions of the last hundred years. The wonderful technical ability that these artists exhibit and the lively, brightly lit works of unashamed beauty they have produced, point to a very healthy future for representational painting in Britain in the years to come.
© Panter & Hall
