Robert Hewer
Robert Hewer
The portrait and human figure are subjects that have fascinated artists for centuries. The museums around the world are full of paintings that testify to the potency of this subject and the way it touches on ideas about who we are or want to be, self-image and status, and the human condition. The figure and portrait paintings by Robert Hewer give his own particular contemporary twist to this engaging and timeless motif.
Faces emerge out of a complex surface of facets, brushstrokes and coloured accents; he never lets us forget that we are looking at a painted surface, deliberately placing accentuated brushstrokes and small flicks and ripples of paint. These paintings are richly assembled and reveal a fluency, confidence and skill in manipulating paint that any expressive abstract artist would envy, but he also manages to combine this activity with a high degree of skill in rendering the portrait, or indeed the other subjects such as still life that he occasionally extends his range to.
Visually stunning and technically brilliant these striking paintings have the power to both thrill and excite, as well as to encourage more profound reflection and questioning.
Sometimes we recognise the person in the portrait, perhaps a celebrity from contemporary life, and this sense of recognition plays on the viewers consciousness while all the time there is the physicality of the painted surface to explore and become involved in. Here we find that the painterly quality is matched by an acute awareness of composition and underlying geometry.
The facial expressions and bodily poses occupy a range of personalities, at times stark, bold, even confrontational, at other times quiet or withdrawn, or perhaps showing a blank vacant expression hinting at anonymity in the modern age of mass surveillance. We are permitted the space to speculate on the essence of a person and what it means to be looked at.
Originally from Dorset, Robert Hewer studied at Bath School of Art and Design between 2010 and 2013. Quickly offered exhibiting opportunities after graduation, he has participated in many exhibitions in London, Edinburgh, Bristol and the South West. He won First prize at the Bath Arts Fringe in 2014. Robert has exhibited with Artwave West since 2014.
Robert Hewer’s Work
