This is a painting done by artist Susanne Du Toit. It is a striking and powerful portrait of her 35-year-old son Pieter, which recently won her one of the UK's most prestigious visual arts prizes. Du Toit was named winner of the 2013 BP Portrait Award at a ceremony at the National Portrait Gallery. I really like her work and believe she is one hell of a gifted artist. Susanne has done an interesting number of portraits, of which I will show later on in some new posts. I am really impressed with her style, and her ability to express emotion in her art. She has worked in many different mediums, such as ceramics, photography, water-colour, etching, and mixed media within sketchbooks. Her portraits have not been largely commissioned, therefore she has had the freedom to take what she wants from them, and interpret them however she would.
Du Toit was born in Pretoria and studied there and at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston before moving to the UK in 1994. She is now based in Crowthorne, Berkshire, and painted her son as part of a series of portraits of her family. Du Toit allowed her son to find his own pose with one condition: she had to see his hands, as she finds them essential in communicating personality. "I look to the body to provide as much expression as the face," she says. "Having said that, the averted gaze of this portrait, which was his choice, struck me as characteristic of his reflective character, and became intensely engaging".
The free BP Portrait Award show is at the National Portrait Gallery from 20 June-15 September 2013. The exhibition will go on tour later on in the year where it will be shown at the Aberdeen Art Gallery later on in November.
Andrew Ioannidis
Du Toit was born in Pretoria and studied there and at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston before moving to the UK in 1994. She is now based in Crowthorne, Berkshire, and painted her son as part of a series of portraits of her family. Du Toit allowed her son to find his own pose with one condition: she had to see his hands, as she finds them essential in communicating personality. "I look to the body to provide as much expression as the face," she says. "Having said that, the averted gaze of this portrait, which was his choice, struck me as characteristic of his reflective character, and became intensely engaging".
The free BP Portrait Award show is at the National Portrait Gallery from 20 June-15 September 2013. The exhibition will go on tour later on in the year where it will be shown at the Aberdeen Art Gallery later on in November.
Andrew Ioannidis
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