Artist - Silas Birtwistle

We are pleased to bring to your attention   

A Table from the Sea's Edge 

which we have the honour of offering for sale to a new owner.  

For those of you who do not know about this global fine art work, please watch the videos and follow the links to learn more about the table and 12 chairs which have already travelled the world and been the backdrop for dignitaries and celebrities from Tony Blair, Boris Johnson, board members of WWF, to Harrison Ford actor and Vice Chair Conservation International, Prince Bandar bin Saud bin Mohammad Al Saud of Saudi Arabia (business man and Arab eco-compaigner),  Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme,  etc.... 

The work has been the centre piece from the International Conference on Biodiversity Nagoya, Japan to Davos Switzerland, World Summit and most recently is on view at the World Museum, Liverpool.

"....The artwork reflects international concerns about threats to the environment from global warming, pollution, population and other factors. The table is set to tour the globe and its first residency is in Liverpool at World Museum.  

Silas says: "I collected the driftwood from the four corners of the world with help from indigenous communities and local environmental non-governmental organisations, most notably the WWF (World Wildlife Fund). The table symbolises the meeting between land and sea, connections between human land-based activities and the coastal and marine environment, the links between cultures and the need for dialogue and agreement between countries to ensure the protection of biodiversity.” 

Click to see the short film on how the project came to be:

                                  

Most recently in May of this year (2011),  at the specific request of MISSION (NOKIA'S PR company)  who were seeking extraordinary UKprojects to navigate between with the new NOKIA E7  incorporated Silas as part of the new Nokia TV Advert. It featured amongst their Destination E7 Visit highlights, Silas gathering wood for two feature Carver Driftwood Chairs  

- the concept of his magnificent furniture....for sustainable living and epitomising sustainable art, biodiversity, a global world view and everything for which this project stands.

             

Perhaps most eloquently of all, speaking of the project and artwork, Ahmed Djoghlaf Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) :   

“I would like to thank WWF, FSC and Maersk Line for supporting this unique project and I invite others to make use of the table and enable its exhibition during 2011, the International Year of Forests.    But most of all I want to thank and to congratulate Silas Birtwistle. Among all those who have contributed to the celebration of the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity, I know of no one who has dedicated such personal effort. Others have worked on behalf of their organizations, but Silas has conceived and carried this as a private individual concerned about the environmental legacy we are leaving our children.   

The artwork and its presence in Nagoya is testimony to his personal commitment,  sacrifice and determination and I find that immensely inspiring.”  

Contact Claire Swait  for more information on commissioning your own project or objects, and stay tuned here for more on the most exciting Global Sustainable Development project in California; soon to house this wonderful 21st century symbolic and functional work of art.

ANIMAL-ISTIC ART - INSPIRATION + DEVOTION IN EVERY CANVAS

Maria Teresa Miriel tells about the source of her inspiration for painting wild creatures and domestic animals, why clients choose her work and these subjects as gifts & to adorn their homes.

"I do so love animals. I simply feel tremendous tenderness towards them. They are wonderful creatures but are not always treated as they deserve, and too often with a total lack of respect, consideration and cruelty. It breaks my heart when remembering some occasions and not only feeling sad but truly furious about the unfairness of the situations I have known or heard.

I think that animals are like defenceless children no matter how fierce they can be. If you chain them, beat them or simply don’t give them food or water, they will die, no matter how strong and wild that animal is. The poor creatures can’t speak, cry or call for help. They do feel and suffer. There are so many proofs of it… I cooperate with dog rescue centres and they have too many stories that can back this statement! We should, we must be their voices… they need our help.

I live in Spain, Andalucía, a wonderful country but unfortunately not known for their love to animals. Luckily and gradually things are changing, for the better, with people becoming more aware of the necessity to be kind and respectful towards them. Sadly it hasn’t been like this and still there is a long way to go. But now, there are more societies created for animal protection, my husband and I, sponsor a donkey from the Donkey Sanctuary in Antequera, near Malaga. It is such a marvellous experience to visit that place. It is worth every minute of it. Also, our dog of 12 years old now was a stray, found abandoned near our house, like so many poor dogs around Christmas time… so sad.

That is one of the main reasons why I probably enjoy painting animals so much. I have painted pets, horses and also zebras, lions, beautiful Bengal tigers, etc. I feel that they can be portrayed as works of art in themselves and decorate our walls in a different and magnificent way. And those paintings fit equally well in a classical or modern environment. A big painting of an animal can fill up the room and create a unique atmosphere all by itself.

                                                  

I have often heard with great satisfaction particularly from lady clients how happy they are when buying from me the painting of an animal and giving it as a present to their husband . Otherwise, they tell me, he would have just ended up with the usual seascape, landscape, boat or map picture… but a painting of an animal? Well, that is simply wonderful, something special … nobody remains indifferent to it. I like to think that my particular love of animals helps to add power to the impact of those unique subjects."

To buy Maria Teresa Miriel's works or for exhibition arrangements, trade and corporate sales and partnerships contact The Fine Art Partnership Ltd TM  http://www.fineartpartnership.com/ .  We work with your preferences on every level: ideas, periods, color-ways, artist or genre with access to extensive collections and artists who create on commission as well.    

All works are available as commissions by contacting enquiries@tfapl.com  to discuss or to ask for a quote.

KOP Africa - Make a difference in 2011 - Intelligent Giving, Intelligently Implemented

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"The Kenyan Orphan Project was started in 2001 by 3 medical students with the vision to fight against poverty, disease, social exclusion and injustice and to help improve the lives of orphans and vulnerable children in Kenya.

Since then more than 650 students from different UK medical schools have been helping to support KOP projects. KOP also works hard to link project work with global child health education and experience for UK students and volunteers.


KOP is committed to creating sustainable initiatives with local project partners."

Give your time:  http://www.kopafrica.org/students.htm
or Support with funds, a small effort makes a big difference: http://www.justgiving.com/kopuk
Watch and Listen to know why : http://www.kopafrica.org/homevideo1.htm

One of the greatest Masters of Vietnamese Lacquer Work

We decided that for 2011 The Fine Art Partnership would begin cooperation with a living legend of Eastern Art and we are offering his works (a sample of which can be seen in detail on The Fine Art Partnership Ltd TM  pages devoted to him). 

Nguyen Viet Bang

Artist Nguyen Viet Bang was on October 1956 into a very artistic family both musically and as visual artists.

"I have been studying lacquer since the mid 70s and started a career in lacquer with the help of my old master when I was nineteen.  People always ask me :  'Why have you always been so passionate about Lacquer art?' and I say: 

"Lacquer is the type of art where you use a lot of materials to describe PIECES

and OBJECTS in different colours but the outcomes are so mysterious that I can’t even begin to explain or achieve the same effect through other different media. It makes no difference what the subject matter, whether I am painting landscapes, portraits, abstractions ... to me everything in everyday life is beautiful but being able to transfer these beauties into paintings is the key.

I specialise in traditional Vietnamese lacquer which is becoming a lost art as lacquer in Vietnam becomes more and more commercialised.  Artists now use modernised lacquer materials, which can be produced much more quickly than the traditional but has lost almost all of the original qualities. A traditional piece of lacquer can take up to 6 months or more to complete depending on size and complication.  In a year I only can complete a very few works.

Recently the national TV proposed that I do a documentary about traditional lacquer master work, the documentary mainly was based around my gallery called ThuyKy and my warehouse where everything’s related to the works are kept. The hour long documentary was made and broadcast on Vietnam national TV  recently and was very well received.

See link:

History of Lacquer

Lacquer is the resin of certain trees growing only in East Asia whose characteristics vary: Rhus succedanea in Vietnam, Rhus verniciera in Japan and Melanorrhea laccifera in Cambodia.The Vietnamese Rhus succedanea has been known for a long time as the so’n tree, an indigenous name. In Phu Tho Province, in Northern Vietnam, resins are harvested from the Rhus Succedanea Tree and converted into natural lacquer, which is then applied to the paintings.

Over the centuries, Vietnamese master craftsmen and artists have mastered techniques using lacquer for purpose of decoration ,preservation, lacquer paintings then became Vietnamese specialties.

To paint with lacquer, one must paint in depth what is in the external layer of the picture and paint above what is in the internal layer, then rub it with pumice and the picture will be visible. The strokes must be minute because there is a great deal of sticky matter and a high degree of homogeneity must be achieved in the lacquer, because everything might disappear during the pumicing. The creation is done in several stages, after each of them, the lacquer dries and only then can one start the following stage. A small mistake can be disastrous. Thousands of other difficulties are to be overcome, the working rules must be strictly observed.

Only a true artisan in the lacquering art who has inherited the secrets transmitted from generation to generation can resolve these problems.

The palette of lacquer painting includes only the color of canhgian (cockroach wings), then (black), son (red), silver and gold. Gold and silver must be pure gold and silver, which in the present are difficult to obtain. To prepare the color, mother-of-pearl and egg shell are also used.  If all the complex stages are carefully exectured only then does the master lacquer artist obtain the marvel of the finished product: an artwork of material, color and light bound together in perfect proportion to last for centuries.

Neo-Renaissance Andalusian Artist - Maria-Teresa Miriel

If there were ever an artist that is made for the world of Interior Design it is Maria Teresa Miriel.  She has an extensive background in art and her particular life long love of Italian Renaissance allows creations which are not copies but rather reworkings for the buildings she decorates and artworks she brings to life.

Florentine Scene - oil on baord - with ground of 22 carat gold foil (as http://www.fineartpartnership.com/ )

She has been an integral part of the visual, mural and decorative restoration of Italian and Spanish villas to ancient private chapels and whether you choose to own a painting of a regal Count for your entrance hall or over mantle, or select a series of Renaissance Servants to process around the walls of your dining room, the viewer is overwhelmed by the presence of the figures which populate her paintings.

For instance, the works which can be seen by browsing http://www.fineartpartnership.com/ are inspired in some cases by the anonymous work which the artists describes as being her inspiration:

"......Basically this series of noble figures were in the Baronnial Room, I suppose it was the noble area of the Castle..... no one knows for certain who painted these figures, but they are clearly Italian with French influence. The date, without any great accuracy, is 1430 .... The old castle where the originals were discovered and from which I painted mine, was in Piemonte, Italy"

Born  in Chile in 1949 she studied Art initially in Santiago, and then in Madrid, Barcelona, Florence and Paris, as well as most lately decorative arts in London.  Her studies covered degrees in textile design, silkscreen, decorative effects., oil, acrylics, charcoals, and mixed media.  Her work is even more attractive when one considers she has only exhibited locally in Spain, but her clientele is entirely international, with designers and collectors around the globe commissioning and buying her work. 

Tete (as she is known to her friends) lives in Andalucia, the beautiful Sotogrande,with husband, dog and her magical studio. 

It should be noted that all of Maria Teresa-Miriel's work can be recreated to size and in variations for the individual client / interior decorator - Please contact enquiries@tfapl.com without obligation to ask about commission works.

While the US and Europe face a test, Asia rockets towards recovery | The Art Newspaper

While the US and Europe face a test, Asia rockets towards recovery The Art Newspaper

ML Art Source: ML Art Blog

ML Art Source: ML Art Blog