The Art of Art

Three New Drawings by Fanny

2011-09-16T09:10:00.001+01:00

30" x 20" each

New Zealand Paintings - New Collection!

2011-09-07T06:37:00.000+01:00

Storm Over Auckland

To see more please click HERE

Flower Paua

2011-07-25T13:25:00.006+01:00

"Flower Paua"

by Anthony Christian

oil on panel

9 x 9 ins.

Click HERE to see more New Zealand Paintings

The beautiful Kowhai flower of New Zealand

2011-07-14T14:39:00.001+01:00

3 new oil paintings by Anthony Christian

Storm by Fanny

2011-07-08T17:06:00.003+01:00

28 x 19 ins.
ink on paper

"Sanctuary" - new drawing by Fanny

2011-06-29T08:45:00.003+01:00

Image below shows the drawing in negative

ink on paper
27 x 20 ins

The Battle Scene

2011-06-20T14:27:00.006+01:00

detail below

To read the amazing story of the Cavalry Battle Scene (6ft x 4ft) and how Anthony came to paint it in the National Gallery , London at only 10 years of age - click here:

http://www.anthonychristian.co.uk/battle.html

The Battle of Anghiari by Anthony Christian

2011-06-19T13:10:00.002+01:00

Anthony Christian's version of Rubens' copy of the lost Leonardo da Vinci painting.

Anthony's drawing is 22" x 29" drawn in New York in 1985 whilst he was suffering from hepatitis after a trip to India. The doctor told the person who was looking after him that he would not survive. It took a week to finish the drawing ... and Anthony survived!

View From the Studio, India

2011-06-17T14:52:00.001+01:00

detail from The Crucifixion of the Female Principle

Our Garden, India

2011-06-17T14:44:00.002+01:00

View From the Studio, Bali

2011-06-17T14:43:00.000+01:00

Big Old Tree - by Fanny

2011-06-14T17:49:00.002+01:00

Ink on paper 30" x 20"

New Drawings by Fanny

2011-05-31T22:27:00.007+01:00

Above: Leap
Below: Natural Wonder

20 x 16 ins.

Pomegranates on African Cloth

2011-05-16T13:55:00.002+01:00

by Anthony Christian

The Drawings of Fanny by Reggie Oliver

2011-05-11T20:55:00.000+01:00

“I started drawing on July 10th 1999 in India” Marian Fannon told me “.....I had never studied art or drawn a thing in my life before that. Just got the urge one day and when Anthony [Christian] saw the results, he encouraged me to carry on and so it went.......” What the artist Anthony Christian saw was a sense of form and a distinctive approach to the medium. One notices immediately a decorative skill, a facility for filigree detail, and a warm yet subtle sense of colour. If this were all Marian had to offer hers would be a very pleasant if minor talent, but look closer and you find a strong compositional sense and what I can only describe as a mystical insight. I was first attracted to Marian’s Mandala drawings because, while holding fast to the profound spiritual qualities of the traditional Mandala, her versions invested the old form with new life, a new-minted freshness, a vibrancy of colour. Her animal drawings have a similar appeal. Starting with the original beast, be it elephant, rhino, cockerel or some other creature, Marian launches into a surreal fantasia of colour and decorative detail. And yet somehow, almost miraculously, she remains true to the essence of the creature she sets out with. Recently she has been experimenting with floral and semi-abstract patterns. These are among her finest pieces because they retain and build upon the two pillars of her art, a strong sense of form and a joyous exuberance of colour and detail. The collaborative work with Anthony Christian adds yet another dimension to her art. The harmony of these pieces and their distinct quality are such they appear to be the work of another major artist, not the work of two. Should he/she be called Anthony Fannon or Marian Christian? You decide. Reggie Oliver

Granturco by Anthony Christian

2011-05-11T15:41:00.000+01:00

Granturco

Drawing in charcoal pencil

highlighted with white chalk on

hand tinted paper

Floral Symphony No 2 by Fanny

2011-05-11T12:18:00.001+01:00

The Bull Tree

2011-05-11T12:01:00.001+01:00

Anthony Christian

Various Drawings by Anthony Christian

2011-05-11T11:57:00.003+01:00

A Study of Chrysanthemums

2011-05-11T01:42:00.000+01:00

Anthony Christian

Moon River by Fanny

2011-05-10T18:05:00.000+01:00

What Lies Beneath 2 & 3

2011-04-30T09:34:00.001+01:00

The Mannequins Video

2011-04-19T17:02:00.002+01:00

Still Life Door Frame by Anthony Christian

2011-04-15T14:35:00.000+01:00

Collapsed Mannequin by Anthony Christian

2011-04-15T14:25:00.000+01:00

New! Just completed - Metamorphosis

2011-04-08T13:37:00.009+01:00

One of two diptychs by Fanny and Anthony which can be seen here:

http://faacca.blogspot.com

The Pieta

2011-01-19T17:08:00.001Z

From the Mannequin series

The Cat in the Plait by Fanny

2011-01-17T10:50:00.001Z

Ink drawing by Fanny Christian
40 x 30 ins

A witch in a hat had a cat in a plait
Who wandered all over the house
He crept up the stairs and leaped over chairs
In search of a juicy mouse.
On one of his jaunts, in one of her haunts
The cat saw a beautiful fish
A - hangin’ around, way high above ground
It looked like a tasty dish.
A sight to behold, its colours so bold,
The cat was enthralled by the vision,
There dangled some cheese, and a mouse if you please!
Oh no! What an awful decision
He now had to choose and both he could lose
Deciding on which he would pounce.
A mouse or a fish would both be delish
But which was the best ounce for ounce?
Enjoying the scene , a bird that was green
Was watching in anticipation
With string in its beak, it couldn’t much speak,
But would soon thwart the cat’s delectation!
The mouse will be spared from being ensnared
As soon as the bird takes flight
They’ll fly off together whatever the weather
Escaping the cat’s hungry bite.
And the fish? Oh the fish! That beautiful fish
Will hang there, despite the cat’s caper
Its cheek still aglow and the net down below
Are made out of Japanese paper!
And the cat? Well the cat still wears the fat plait
And lives with the witch to this day
He still roams the house in search of a mouse
And sometimes a fish comes his way…
Courtesy of the witch of course!

The Drawings of Anthony Christian

2011-01-04T14:17:00.000Z

Susan, half - face and Rose Drapery

Despite all the vagaries of the modern art scene, the notion that draughtsmanship is the foundation of all good painting has never quite been abandoned. Good draughtsmanship is not simply about accurate representation - any halfway decent student in any halfway decent art school can achieve that - it is about developing the discipline to respond fluently and spontaneously to what you see before you. What characterised Anthony Christian’s drawings from a remarkably early age was not only an accurate eye, but a confident subtle line, delicate and yet powerful. Comparison with the drawings of Michelangelo and Leonardo are not out of place. Christian consciously modelled his drawing on theirs, sometimes copying actual drawings - like Leonardo’s Battle of Angiari study - with phenomenal verve and accuracy. More importantly he absorbed their dynamism and economy, together with their sense that a drawing is not simply a sketch or study for something bigger but a work of art in itself. Today Christian employs all kinds of medium, charcoal, sanguine, ink, and achieves a wide range of effects to suit his different subjects. His great tree drawings have a wonderful wiry vitality, his nudes a supple sensuality; while with his portrait heads and drapery studies he achieves an extraordinary sculptural quality in the modelling by the use of shading and highlights. In Christian’s drawings you find the key to his mastery of other forms. They are not a sideline; they are the heart and soul of his work. REGGIE OLIVER http://www.blackcathedral.co.uk/ right click to open in a new window

The Young Disciple, INDIA

2010-10-27T08:57:00.008+01:00

THE YOUNG DISCIPLE

INDIA (Jaipur) 1985

This young yogi was one of the most beautiful people Anthony ever saw; full of humility, radiant with his truth, he seemed to glow, and Christian hoped to work with him on some major paintings. But in case the opportunity didn't present itself. as transpired to be the case, he made this beautiful and simple, but very expressive portrait study. It was painted in one short sitting in a little Hindu temple, on the morning of St. Valentine's Day .

7 - 9 OCTOBER 2010 - SAATCHI GALLERY LONDON

2010-10-02T09:52:00.011+01:00

The Crucifixion of the Female Principle by Anthony Christian (image above) is the most highly valued work in the exhibition . Fanny and Anthony will also be exhibiting their collaboratiive painting Sail Away.

October 7th-9th 2010 the Art of Giving is hosting the largest ever sale of art for charity at the Saatchi Gallery London.

Mango in a Bowl

2010-07-23T13:01:00.001+01:00

Paintings feature in "House and Garden" magazine this month

2010-04-14T18:38:00.005+01:00

Two of Anthony's Mannequin Paintings featured in an article in this month's House and Garden (UK edition)

"I first met Anthony Christian in 1964..." by Reggie Oliver

2010-04-09T13:53:00.000+01:00

I first met Anthony Christian in 1964 when I was twelve and he was nineteen. He had got to know my parents when he painted a portrait of a great friend of theirs. That portrait, despite its technical brilliance, was not universally popular because Anthony had revealed an inner sadness in the subject which many of his friends - though not my parents - were unwilling to acknowledge. He went on to paint and draw both my parents and myself and became a good friend, never for a moment talking down to the very naive teenager that I was. He influenced me profoundly because he was the first person whom I met, perhaps the only person I have known, who was and remains one hundred percent artist. That is to say: every fibre and impulse of his being is geared towards the creation of beautiful and memorable things. This accounts for the outstanding integrity and originality of his work; it also accounts for the extraordinary roller coaster of his career. He has never once pandered to fashion when his outstanding technical gifts alone could so easily have earned him golden rewards. That is why his work, though it has developed and evolved, remains of a piece and demonstrates a unique vision: sensual and yet austerely beautiful, passionate yet refined, witty and playful too. At the heart of his work, I believe, are his incomparable gifts as a draughtsman, evident from his earliest pieces, such as the Battle Scene, to his most recent masterpiece “The Crucifixion of the Female Principle.” As if this were not enough he is also a fine photographer and a superb writer of memoirs which must be read to be believed. But that, as they say, is another story. REGGIE OLIVER http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggie_Oliver right click to open in a new window.

Rhonda the Rhino

2010-01-18T10:50:00.005Z

Rhonda by Fanny

40" x 30"

drawing in ink

Interiors by Anthony Christian

2009-12-16T14:39:00.015Z

Moonstruck in Bali by Anthony Christian

2009-07-30T15:25:00.003+01:00

Self Portrait to Salvador Dali

2009-07-23T16:24:00.003+01:00

Self Portrait to Salvador Dali

Anthony Christian

The Indian Kitchen

2009-07-17T11:08:00.001+01:00

Jaipur, India 1986

In the remotest village Anthony ever visited, he stayed in a house that amused him greatly, especially for its kitchen, which was full of holes! He painted various aspects of it, including even a study of just the door which was the house's most eccentric detail. This door and the surrounding wall were full of cracks so large that a person could easily pass through them into the house....and yet the owners still proudly locked their door at night, shoving great bolts across it, turning keys..and then proceeding to walk right through it! The hole in the roof (in fact half of the roof was missing!) pleased him too , as did the cowpats, which in India are intelligently used for fuel. In any Indian house, from the richest to the poorest, there is always water on the boil , for interminable cups of "char" (very strong tea with vast quantities of sugar). Anthony was delighted when, whilst he was painting, one of the inhabitants happened to throw off her shawl and leave it lying there where we see it, adding a beautiful splash of colour to the work. Such magical events make what might be a more ordinary picture into a sparkling interpretation of a way of life.

Madonna of the Feathers

2009-07-11T12:37:00.001+01:00

Nepalese Kitchen

2009-07-11T11:20:00.001+01:00

Nepal 1987

With guides and a porter to carry his painting equipment, Anthony trekked through the mountains of Nepal, seeing more beautiful landscapes daily than he had seen in his entire life. Arriving in a little village called Mlimtsi , he was intrigued by a house he visited, the more so when his guide told him it wasn't a guest house but the home of ordinary people.. it was one of the most unique houses Anthony had ever seen, and he loved painting it. After he had completed the painting his guide asked him if he would like to see other houses before they moved on , and Anthony was absolutely amazed to discover that they all looked exactly the same!

His guide explained that this was Sherpa territory; the Sherpas, unlike the other tribes of Nepal, interest themselves, not in turquoise, amber and coral, but in pots and pans and kitchen ware. Since the variety of such wares is very limited in Nepal, naturally they all have the same things. The only chance they have of acquiring anything different from their neighbours is if they can come across something left by a passing tourist, of which there are very few in that region. In the case of the interior Anthony painted they had, (and they appear in his painting) a can of Cadbury's Drinking Chocolate and even a bottle of Dom Perignon!

His guide told him that added to this idiosyncrasy is the fact that the same family of carpenters travels around building all their shelves...and thus one finds similar things, placed in a similar order on similar shelves. Anthony's painting caused no less a sensation than had his hut in India, but this time he had his guide to show it to the excited crowd. He was surprised and touched when they arrived at the outskirts of the next village, to find a crowd of people waiting eagerly to see the picture. Some people had run ahead from Mlimtsi to tell the inhabitants of the next village of the painter and his picture. This continued for the rest of the day; at each village they passed through, scores of people greeted them, looked at the painting, recognized and enjoyed. Anthony was deeply moved.

The Letter

2009-04-25T11:17:00.007+01:00

Fanny with Pearls

2009-02-07T13:59:00.004Z

Fanny with Pearls

Backview Lotus

2009-02-07T13:50:00.004Z

This painting is available as a beautiful Limited Edition, signed and numbered Silkscreen Print. View the prints by right clicking here

Self Portrait in a Beret

2009-01-27T09:46:00.001Z

Self Portrait in a Beret

This painting was started in Italy, at Rietine where Anthony was living at the time, continued in Germany and finally, after a month, finished in London in 1978.

Rietine , Tuscany, 1979

2009-01-26T23:44:00.000Z

On the left is a photo of Anthony painting the village where he lived in Italy in 1979 and on the right is the finished painting . The original hangs in The Ichor (ee:kor) Collection but the image is available as a beautiful Limited Edition (of 150) signed and numbered Silkscreen Print. Click on the link to the Silkscreens Prints at the top of the sidebar or email me for details.

New York , 1985

2009-01-26T09:43:00.002Z

Ok, I am cheating a bit here because the painting Anthony is working on is not EXACTLY the one in the picture on the right, but it IS from the same series ! Do you remember me speaking about a stolen crate and 11 missing paintings in an earlier post about the Door Frames? Well, the painting hanging on the wall in the photo on the left is called South Street Interior (Anthony lived on South Street and that was his appartment) and is one of those paintings stolen in 1994. We are STILL looking......

The Tannery , Fez, Morocco, 1984

2009-01-26T09:43:00.001Z

We have a large collection of photographs taken over the years of Anthony at work all over the world. We intend eventually to publish these in a book but for now I have created a section here on the blog called Artist at Work . I have taken many photographs of this kind in the years we have known each other but it is amazing how many times there just happened to be someone there at the right time with a camera in all those places all those years ago before the age of the digital camera made it commonplace. Fanny

Nepal, 1987

2009-01-26T09:12:00.000Z

It is amazing that , even in the most remote places , an audience would appear from out of nowhere to watch the magic!

Gamba

2009-01-02T14:37:00.007Z

Gamba

62" x 39"

Gamba with Anthony in Tuscany, Italy 1977

Gamba was an old retired cobbler who lived in a Tuscan village not far from the old mill (Molino) where Anthony lived in 1977. Of all the male faces he had seen until then, Gamba fascinated and inspired Anthony the most, and he made numerous drawings and paintings of him. Many years before, Anthony had invented a technique of tinting paper, but now he wished to experiment with pastel and with scale, drawing full length and life size for the first time. He had a red cape which was precious to him for the quality of its drapery and because red is his favourite colour. Dressing Gamba in the cape, Anthony made three drawings of him, two full face and a profile, but although each of these drawings was very successful, none of them gave the artist the satisfaction he craved. They did not express the strong emotions he felt before the extraordinary beauty and depth reflected in this man's face, which seemed to represent or suggest something beyond the man himself. This kind of 'otherworldly beauty' is a phenomenon Anthony has come across several times now, but with Gamba he was encountering it for the first time.
Almost desperate to see if he could transfer onto paper these emotions that Gamba inspired , Anthony searched around for more paper, but none could be found (he had used up all his stock).....until his eye was caught by the large piece he had used for over twenty years, to tint thousands of sheets of paper on. It fascinated him for its indefinable colour and odd markings, born of so many years of use. All this inspired the artist further as he set to work.
Anthony was so fulfilled by this work, it made him realize that there was nothing left in drawing for him but to experiment, and he was too taken up with his passion for painting to spend any time on anything else. For several years after creating this work, he didn't draw at all. He had succeeded in creating an image that moves beyond the man himself; some have the impression of a Tibetan priest, others see an ancient nobleman from another time, but all who see the drawing feel its spirituality and powerful mysticism.
This old and tattered piece of paper has caused a sensation wherever it has been shown, no less in Asia than in New York, where Anthony was invited by the director of the Academy of Drawing to exhibit it and to give a talk and demonstration of his drawing. At that time however, he was recuperating from hepatitis and the most he was able to do was to loan the drawing to the Academy for a few days. It is now one of the prized works in our private collection.

Self Portrait in a Red Cloak

2009-01-02T09:49:00.001Z

Anthony Christian

Clio Reading

2008-12-31T17:51:00.004Z

Clio Reading

Backview Lying Nude

2008-12-21T10:52:00.002Z

Backview Lying Nude

available as a silkscreen print from:

http://www.anthonychristian.co.uk/sprint2.html