Gary Bunt - Artist

Modern British Tribute Paintings

All paintings are Oil on Canvas

Great painters have always sought inspiration from the work of others. It is rare to find an artist that does not devour books, catalogues and magazines, nor delights in wandering the halls of typically buzzing galleries and salerooms. Observations feed their creativity and inspire them to create work that is indebted to those that have gone before. Gary Bunt is no exception and his ferocious appetite has long inspired his painterly approach, and the development of his own very distinctive style. In this brave body of work – just twelve paintings – the artist recognises and celebrates those that since childhood have inspired him and spurred him on in his artistic endeavours.

In these wonderful imagined interiors Bunt pays tribute to the genre of Modern British Art – a period stemming from the closing years of the Edwardian era, marked by the end of stuffy, high Victorian aestheticism, through to the birth of the Young British Artists of the 1990s. It is of course an artistic construct, with lines that blur between different fields, periods or geographic regions, but one generally accepted in both a curatorial and commercial setting. Exhibitions have dedicated themselves to the period, and auction houses and galleries specialise in the field, often producing lavishly illustrated catalogues that Bunt loves nothing more than to pore over. It is no surprise that the artist looks to this genre for inspiration for these are the familiar paintings that he grew up with, and their imagery has over the course of the past century filtered into mainstream popular culture.

Those familiar with Bunt’s work may find this body of painting a sharp departure from his usual style, but looking closer they are inextricably linked to the landscapes, subject matters and interiors that make up his paintings. The artist makes no secret of his obsession with the work of painters such as Winifred Nicholson, Alfred Wallis and Christopher Wood, and meticulous little reproductions often appear on the walls of Bert’s (Bunt’s famed farmer figure) home as a subtle nod to the artists that Bunt so adores. He has looked to these painters and recognised their striking ability to develop what is a quintessentially British vernacular that in turn has inspired his work. Technically accomplished, these paintings also showcase Bunt’s rare ability to mirror and borrow the style of many different artists with his brush – flitting like a magpie from the closely detailed hand of Stanley Spencer, to the soft, delicate palette of watercolourist Eric Ravilious or the almost translucent technique of Craigie Aitchison. Bunt picks up their style through intense scrutiny of their techniques, and these canvases reflect hours that the artist has spent to ensure their skills are accurately represented.

These tribute paintings are a passion project for the artist – a testament to the great and talented painters that have gone before, and just as Spencer looked to artists such as Samuel Palmer and William Blake; Churchill to the paintings of his tutors William Nicholson, John Lavery or Walter Sickert or Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood to the untrained hand of Alfred Wallis, so too Bunt here celebrates the importance of those artists that have inspired him, honouring them in these beautiful painterly memorials.

Robin Cawdron-Stewart