Robbie Wraith & Martin Yeoman

Press Release

May 8th - 30th 2009

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‘They are men who can capture the essence of a place through observing all that is around them and then committing their very personal impression to paper or canvas. They both excel at this very human endeavour; this almost spiritual process that helps the rest of us to experience the soul of a place, in a way no words or captured image such as a photograph can do.’ These are the words of Charles, Prince of Wales, in his introduction to the catalogue accompanying the exhibition of the works of Robbie Wraith and Martin Yeoman. The Prince is in a good position to make these observations, having been accompanied on his overseas tours by these two artists, in Robbie’s case to South Africa and in Martin’s to India, Hong Kong and the Gulf States. In requesting the services of an artist on these tours, the Prince is able to secure visual diaries of his progresses through new terrains and cultures. Presumably, the demands put upon him by his royal duties preclude his wholehearted absorption of the goings-on around him; his ‘itinerant’ artist provides a second pair of eyes and a sounding board for his own observations. An accomplished watercolourist himself, the Prince is well aware of the difficulties inherent in working on tour. He is equally conscious of the upside of working under pressure: the spontaneity which will imbue a work. Looking at the pieces sketched rapidly and freely gives the viewer a great sense of closeness to the creative process: it is as though we are there looking over the shoulder of the artist and experiencing his viewpoint and sensitivity to the scene. Both members of the august Royal Society of Portrait Painters, founded in 1891, Wraith and Yeoman bring the same spontaneity and subtlety to their portraiture. It is this subtlety, no doubt, which lends a coherence to the exhibition. The two artists’ works hang very sympathetically together.

Síle Connaughton-Deeny, May 2009

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