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Wing artist Mark Alexander puts Sunflowers in the shade
Contemporary artist included in RA's Summer Exhibition.
TALENTED contemporary Wing artist Mark Alexander looked to Van Gogh for inspiration to produce his 40,000 oil painting – Via Negativa – which is currently on show at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition.
Mark, 44, of Ascott Green, achieved his fine arts degree from Oxford as a mature student and his stunning work has been included in major exhibitions ever since.
As well as the RA piece the artist, who is a favourite with Ascott House owners Sir Evelyn and Lady de Rothschild, has two paintings hanging in the nave of St Paul's Cathedral as part of the building's Cathedral Arts Programme.
Alexander's painstaking technique, requiring months to complete a single work, has attracted both praise and befuddlement from critics.
The Daily Telegraph said Alexander: "Cuts an enigmatic figure in the art world, attracting the interest of some of its most influential collectors. "He has produced only 22 paintings since his career began in 1993. This is due not to idleness but to a sort of manic fastidiousness.
"The works of this self-taught artist combine elements of eighteenth-century classicism, nineteenth-century photography, and modern photo-realism."
Via Negativa sees the master's Sunflowers displayed in black pigment on a white background and it shares wall space with one of the exhibition's most expensive pieces Antoni Tpies' I am Earth – on sale for a dirty 293,750.
The Summer Exhibition is on at the Piccadilly , London, gallery until August 22.
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Thursday 17 May 2012
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