www.markpenneygallery.com

“Paul should be congratulated on a book which gives an authoritative, overdue account of an extraordinary man.” ~ Lord Montigue of Beaulieu (in the forward of ‘The Man Who Supercharged Bond’, a biography of Amherst Villiers authored by Paul Kenny)

The extraordinary story of artist Charles Churchill Villiers’ father Charles Amherst Villiers has recently been published. I know Charles to be immeasurably proud of his father’s accomplishments, and of him as an artist and painter.

Amherst made a profound break from rocketry and engineering, to pursue painting; his very first portrait was of young Charles, the portrait sitting resulted in the two spending a great deal of time together and seems to have influenced Charles deeply in his identity as an artist.

Ian Flemming was a close friend and neighbor to the Villiers family. In 1962 Flemming commissioned a portrait which appeared in a limited edition of ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’. A young Charles’ childhood stories are credited to the formation of ‘Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang’ the children’s book, and later hollywood movie, which is undeniably based on the Villiers Family; Charles, sister Jane, their father the inventor and of course the fabled race car rebuilt as a flying car.

Amherst Villiers and his son, Charles in the restored Bently

At age 11, under his father’s guidance, Charles began painstakingly restoration of a Villiers blown Bentley, that had been given to him by Flemming. The car upon it’s completion, won the Concourse D’ Elegance at Pebble Beach, California.

Amherst Villiers began began his career in design engineering by souping up Brescia Bugattis, he went on to develop Superchargers for Bentley and Rolls Royce. He designed the Napier-Campbell Bluebird in 1927. He left the group to work on a gyroscope design and to calculate a rocket trajectory to reach Mars, by that time Bluebird had broken the land speed record.

As a professional, portrait painter, he was known to take his artwork very seriously, pursuing it with a single minded determination. He studied under portrait painter Pietro Annigoni in Florence, and later worked on restoration of renaissance masterworks in a monastery in Majorca. As an artist himself, his son Charles studied painting under him in Spain.

Amherst Villiers paintings are very highly regarded; a portrait of Ian Flemming, along with a stunning portrait of legendary race-car driver, Graham Hill, are on loan to the National Portrait Gallery of London.

I’m excited and looking forward to reading this book. It’s available online at the official website www.themanwhosuperchargedbond.com

Pacific Rim Arts Society, is having a local Artists showing. ‘Wave Art Show’ runs October 26-27-28 (in the Harbour Lounge) at Weigh West Resort, 634 Campbell St., Tofino.

More…

Artist Ken Kirkby’s recently released biography, Ken Kirkby – A Painter’s Quest for Canada, has been garnering a lot of attention, a book signing in Calgary had just shy of 5000 people in attendance.
Ken says the book has sold out of the 1st printing, that it’s a best seller and that they’ve begun selling the second edition.
I had Ken bring by a few copies, he signed them here at the gallery.

A Painter’s Quest for Canada – Ken Kirkby

At this stage of my life all I wanted to do was go and live at my favourite place, a small village near a stream on the east coast of Vancouver Island. Most of all, I wanted to live an ordinary sort of life which had so far eluded me, a life where I could sleep when tired, eat when hungry, fly-fish whenever it pleased me and paint all those paintings that had become stored up in me like water behind a dam constructed by the events told in this book.”

Ken Kirkby has published a biographical account of his travels across the north, and of painting the largest canvas known; 12 foot x 153 foot long , Isumataq. Launch of the book will take place at Englishman River Gallery, in Parksville on Saturday September 12th  2009, noon ’til 4pm. I’ll extend my personal invitation to all of you.

Ken is a remarkable speaker, and a formidable painter. Ken’s works are represented here at Mark Penney Gallery, Ucluelet and at Englishman River Gallery, Parksville. The book is currently available online through it’s independent canadian publisher; Libros Libertad. I’ll be sure to bring in a few signed copies.

Charles Churchill Villiers was born in New York in 1951, son of the noted inventor Amherst Villiers.

His father, who had designed the Blower Bentley in the 1920’s, was past President of the American Rocket Society, helped develop Sir Malcolm Campbell’s “Campbell-Napier Blue Bird’, and was also himself a portrait painter of significance.

Charles from an early age showed astonishing creativity. Though gifted with an aristocratic legacy (he is Winston Churchill’s Godson, and his family tree stretches back directly to William the Conqueror) Charles was never one to rest on his laurels. He grew up in London, New York, California and occasionally stayed for long periods with his aunt, Veronica Milner here on Vancouver Island, who was host to Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles and other Royal visitors to their Qualicum Beach estate.

When just ten years of age Charles was asked by Ian Fleming, a friend of his father, to draw a picture of a car. The prototype of this drawing was then used to illustrate a book that Fleming was working on, “Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang”.

Fleming later acquired a Blower Bentley, which at age eleven, Charles restored and five years later won the “Concourse D’Elegance Award’ at Pebble Beach in California.

Charles has expressed himself in the world of art from many directions. During the 60’s and 70’s he was a musician and songwriter with such bands as ‘Villiers & Gold’, with Andrew Gold, “Homeward” with Steve Bishop and acted in films, one of which, John Landis “Schlock” won the Trieste Sci-Fi Festival Ward.

However his painting has always been the main venue of his creativity and he has during the past forty years produced an impressive body of work. His work has evolved from the classical, to abstract to the non-objective and in recent years into digital media which have led to a stunning selection of prints.

He has had at least thirty-five major solo exhibitions and has executed numerous commissions worldwide. His work is included in a number of Museums and in the collections of many prestigious and notable collectors.

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Solo Exhibitions:

2006 Control Drama, Downey Museum of Art, Archival Ink Jet Prints, Downey, CA
2001 Young Man on his way to the Spirit World, Virtual Air Gallery, Cyberspace
1995 Soul Trap, Sculptures, Sullivan – Goss, “An American Gallery” Santa Barbara, CA
1995 Paintings from London, Abante Fine Art, Portland, Oregon
1993 From the Artist Collection, Spago, Cesar’s Palace, Las Vegas, NV
1991 New Paintings, GH2 Gallery, West Los Angeles, CA
1989 Large Scale Paintings & Sculpture, Natoli – Ross Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
1988 The Metal Primate Variables, Future Perfect, Los Angeles, CA
1988 A Tale of Three Cities, Diane Nelson Gallery, Orange County, CA
1986 New Bronzes & Paintings, Chiat – Day Corporation, New York, NY
1985 The Procreation Paintings, Gallery West, Los Angeles, CA
1985 Selected Works, & Installations, Scratch, Venice, CA
1984 Twin Self, Art Space, Los Angeles CA
1984 New Work, Drawing, Paintings and Sculptures Gallery West, Los Angeles, CA
1983 Chop Wood, Metro Gallery, In conjunction with The China Club, Hollywood, CA
1983 Auras, Gallery West, Los Angeles, CA
1983 New Paintings, Kirk De Gooyer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1982 In a Moment of Time, Lawrence Silver Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA
1982 New Work as an Installation, Arco Center, Los Angeles, CA
1978 Etching & Drawings from Spain, John Greenburg Gallery, London, England
1977 Osiris, Richard Mann Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1972 Drawings & Woodblocks, Gallery Palma, Majorca, Spain
1970 Charles Villiers – Installation, Hans Morris Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark

Group Exhibitions:

Group Exhibition, Downey Museum of Art, Downey, CA
The Arbutus Project, Ink Jet Prints & Video Insulation
Downey Museum of Art, featured artist Art International, Barker Hangar, Santa Monica, CA
Two – Person Show, The James Grey Gallery. Charles Villiers & Craig French Santa Monica, CA
Regional Artists, Group Exhibition, Gallery 22, Nanaimo BC, Canada
From out of nowhere The Thinking Space, Hoxton Square, London, England
Gallery Artists, Abante Fine Art, Portland, Oregon
The Native American, Sponsored by, Black Elk Speaks, Los Angeles, CA
The Final Exhibits – Part II. Art Space, Los Angeles, CA
City of Angles, GH2 Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Animal Rights, Studio Leonardo Gavinci Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Group show, Diane Nelson Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
The First Show, Modern Multiples, curator, Richard Duardo Los Angeles, CA
Best of the 1980’s Laguna Museum of Art, Laguna Beach, CA
A Continuing Study in Multiples, Transamerica Galleries, Los Angeles, CA
1988 Gallery Artists, Diane Nelson Gallery, Orange, CA
L.A. Arts, Leonardo Gavinci Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Creative Existentialism, Blue Note Experimental Group Exhibition, Chicago, Illinois
Artist from the Center of the Universe, Natoli – Ross Gallery, Santa Monica,
1984 New Mannerism, Davies, Long Gallery, Los Angeles CA
Gallery Artists, Davies & Brown, Los Angeles, CA
Car and Culture, Museum of Contempory Art, Los Angeles CA
Olympic Arts Festival, curator, Richard Koshalek, Los Angeles, CA
Studio Show, Robert Miles Runyan, Los Angeles, CA
Car Plays, Mark Taper Forum, curator, Julie Lazar, LosAngeles, CA
Light and Dimension, curator, Ruth Bachofner, Gensler & Associates.
Metro Rail, in association with L.A.V.A. Los Angeles, CA
Art and the Familiar Object, Security Pacific Bank, Los Angeles, CA
Twentieth Century Sculpture, The Jones Gallery, Huntington Beach, CA
Tubular Art, Laguna Beach Museum of Art, Laguna Beach, CA
1983 Predictions, Metro Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
The Urban Suite, Monoprint Portfolio, Angeles Press, Metro Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Thought Forms, Metro Gallery, Los Angeles, Spring Wave, curator, Barbara Lazaroff, Spago,
Art and Soul, Stella Polaris Gallery, Carl G. Jung Institute Benefit
Summer Show New West Gallery, Tucson, Arizon
Monoprints from Angeles Press, curator, Bruce Richards; Art Space Los Angeles, CA
Emerging Artists, Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Images and Issues, curator, Sandy Ballatore -Nelson,Santa Monica, CA
1982 Similar Views, Yaacov Agam, Eugene Jardin, Charles Villiers
Gallery Artists, Gallery West, Los Angeles, CA
Kirk De Gooyer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Cedars Sinai, curator, Marcia Weisman, Los Angeles, CA
Video installation, At Sunset, curator, Jim Budman, Hollywood.CA
Sex at Exile, Exile Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Lawrence Silver Gallery, Los Angeles. Metro Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Kirk De Gooyer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1981 The Triptych Show, curator, David J Rubin, Claremont Graduate School,
Figuration / Abstraction, Gallery Kirsten Riche, Hamburg, Germany
1980 Shinno Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1978 Summer Exhibition, The Royal Academy, London, England
Celebrity Show, Sotherby Park Bernet, London, England
Layton Gallery, London, England
Gimpel Fils Ltd., London, England
1974 Shinno Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
American Painters in Paris, C.I. P., Paris, France
Galley Artists, Gallery Palma, Majorca, Spain

Select Commissions:

2007 Museum of Contemporary Art & Culture / New Museum, Project / Downey
2007 180 Music “Saudade” Stephen Bishop CD Cover & Booklet Minneapolis, Minnesota
2003 Unit 29 Video Projects, Direction & Production, BC, Canada
2000 Digital Ink The Black Totem, Cyber Entanglements, BC, Canada
1997 J. Colin, “Faith” Fourteen Large Scale Sculptures, Montecito, CA
1997 Spago, Wolfgang Puck – Barbara Lazaroff, Nude Woman With Crown & Goat, Large Scale Painted Insulation, Hollywood, CA
1991 Mondrian Hotel, Arnold Ashkenazi “The Light House” Large Scale Painting, Los Angeles, CA
1988 Modern Multiples, The Metal Primate Variables
1987 The Carriage House, Jay Chiat – Bronze Commission for Interior, NY. N.Y. Jay Chiat, Robert Miles Runyan, Cast from Eden – Bronzes,
1986 Scratch Restaurant, Sculptural Entrance & Building Exterior,Venice, CA
MOCA, in conjunction with. Mark Taper Forum, Car & Culture, The Thirty-Foot Spinning, Triptych
1983 The Laurence Gregar Group, The Urban Suite, Mono-Print Portfolio, Los Angeles, Ca
1970 Motion Graphics, – John Whitney Sr. “Binary Bit Patterns,” Computer Animated Short Film – Musical Direction & Composition, Pacific Palisades, CA
1960 Ian Fleming, Initial Drawings for “Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang,” London, England

Joan Larson has been involved in the arts all her life. An early interest in art led her to study at the Banff Centre, the University of Victoria, and the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.
Joan specializes in equine art work, often drawing upon her background of landscape and figurative painting to create her work. Born in Sexsmith Alberta, she was influenced by the open, rural landscape around her. However, a family move to Victoria, B.C. while still young, gave her an appreciation of the surrounding forests and ocean.

Joan’s career experiences have included graphic design, illustration, managing her own gallery in Palm Desert, California, and developing several picture framing businesses. Her diverse education and life experiences have given her a practical understanding of the business aspects of the art world, as well as a technical proficiency with a variety of art mediums.

Her preference to work primarily with pastels is due to the exceptional colour effects that can be achieved when working with sticks of pure pigment. Her subjects have been described as “sensitive portrayals, so life like that the personalities shine through.” Often using unusual angles of observation and varying light sources, she is able to capture the more subtle aspects of the human/animal relationship.

Joan’s work has won awards and been featured in several publications. She shows her work at selected exhibits, including the Spruce Meadows “Masters”; Equi-Fair in Calgary, Alberta, and has been accepted to the American Academy of Equine Artists juried shows in Lexington, Kentucky. She is a member of the Pastel Society of Canada, the Equine Art Guild and the Federation of Canadian Artists. Her work can be found in numerous private and public collections.

Her home and studio are located on a scenic acreage in the Qualicum Beach area of Vancouver Island.
2008 is shaping up to another busy year in the studio. An invitation to show her work at the Look Gallery in Helmsley, Yorkshire, UK is the first show of the year. New works are in progress for that show opening on April 27.

Joan is also pleased to announce that her first illustrated book, “Yetsa’s Sweater” has been nominated for another award. So far the list includes:
• 2007 – 08 Chocolate Lily Award from the BC Teachers & Librarians Assoc.
• 2007 Shining Willow Award from the Saskatchewan Young Readers Choice Awards (voting ended on Feb. 29/08)
• 2007 BC Booksellers Choice Award
• 2008 Silver Birch Award from the Ontario Library Association
It has also been chosen for the “Top 5 Books by the Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children” by Rutgers University, New Brunswick
A second illustrated book is currently in the works . . .

Joan will be back at Equi-Fair at Spruce Meadows this fall. It will be her 20th year there. Time flies to say the least. She will be previewing new works and new projects. If you would like an invitation to the “Preferred Customer Evening” please contact the studio and we will make sure to send you one.

Joan will be having a one-person show at The Old School House in Qualicum Beach, Nov. 10 – Dec. 7. She will be previewing some of the new “RCMP Musical Ride” artworks at that time.

Posts tagged Joan Larson