Artist's blog by contemporary portrait painter Peter D'Alessandri

27/10/202014/08/2023

Autumn Salon Exhibition

Art exhibitions are like London buses. I wait months for an opportunity to show my work, and then I receive two acceptance emails in the same morning.
I’ve already mentioned The Discerning Eye in my previous post. I’m very pleased to have been accepted for that one – such a shame that the exhibition is virtual this year. The other exhibition I will be taking part in is The Autumn Salon, from 30th October, hosted by Candid Arts Gallery, Angel, London. That’s a real world exhibition – actual paintings on real walls, with real people walking about (albeit wearing masks, and suitably socially distanced).
I’ve had mixed feelings about getting involved in real exhibitions during this epidemic. However, the gallery at Candid Arts is a lovely open space – perfect for social distancing. At the end of the day, there is just no substitute for seeing a painting in the flesh.

26/10/202005/10/2023

ING Discerning Eye

I’m very pleased to learn that my painting “I did not ask” has been accepted into this year’s ING Discerning Eye exhibition.

I did not ask

I did not ask my model about the scars on her arms. Despite working with her regularly and being on familiar terms, I never once broached the subject of those scars, and in my paintings of her I never showed them.
A couple of years after this sitting I read the book “A Little Life” by Hanya Yanagihara – a difficult and troubling read, but extremely moving. As I read about the main character’s self-harming and how his friends were all quietly aware of it, but never spoke of it, I thought again about my model bearing her scars in silence. That is what compelled me to find the sketches and photos from that sitting, and to produce this.

I think this painting is just as much about my own reaction to those marks on her forearms, and my awkward silence.

The ING Discerning Eye annual exhibition is a show of small works independently selected by six prominent figures from different areas of the art world: two artists, two collectors and two critics.
The selectors choose both publicly submitted works and works by personally invited artists. Each selector’s section is hung separately to give each its own distinctive identity. The impression emerges of six small exhibitions within the whole.

The exhibition website is here.

30/07/202030/07/2020

HCF Summer Open

I have a couple of paintings on show in the HCF Summer Exhibition, at The Halpern Gallery in Chatham. Yes, actual paintings, in a real gallery. It almost feels like things are getting back to normal…

Okay, so there wasn’t a PV, and face masks are required if you do want to pay a visit. But it’s a first step. And it feels good seeing my two recent portraits hanging on the wall.

The Halpern Gallery is located in the Nucleus Arts complex, just off Chatham High Street. It is open Monday-Saturday, 10am-4pm, until the 31st August. Their website is here.

04/05/202001/10/2023

Lockdown Artist Diary – Day 42

artist drawing a teddy bear during lockdown — Still searching for my muse.

Lockdown Diary. Day 42.

The days are merging into one another. Shopping and planning meals has provided the only structure to this strange new life. Although I keep reminding myself that I should feel grateful – I’m in good health with good company and comfortable accommodation, eating very well – I find myself growing angry at these constant constraints. I don’t want to have to write another f****ng shopping list!

drawing of walking boots and compass during lockdown. A reminder of the artist's abandoned walking holiday because of lockdown

But still I write them. And I draw. I draw what is around me… My walking shoes, when I was thinking about the cancelled walking holiday that I should have started today. I draw the bag of flour that I found on the supermarket shelf, after weeks of searching, that I hurried home with, as if running from an illicit drugs deal.

a drawing of eggs and flour made during lockdown. This was the first day the artist could actually find flour in the shops, after weeks of empty shelves

I draw bottles of wine, that I look forward to drinking at the weekend – another constraint, but self-imposed, to protect my liver during lockdown.

I drew my girlfriend’s shoes, when I felt sad that we haven’t been able to go out anywhere for a long time. Our own caution meant we stopped going to bars or restaurants a month before the official look down.

drawing of fashionable shoes during lockdown. a reminder that there was nowhere to go and wear such shoes during lockdown

Without restaurants or cafés, I have found myself spending an awful lot of time planning and preparing meals. A weekly menu – another list! – helps avoid constant repetition of my old favourites. Yesterday I cooked my first rosti!

And then there’s the teddy bear. He has become a regular model. I suspect that I see my drawings of him as self-portraits. So why does he look so sad all the time.?

07/04/2020

Lockdown Diary

How do you survive a lockdown? I must admit, I’ve found the whole situation very unsettling. I can’t get to my studio, or my boat. The government is even threatening to ban my morning walk, unless people start behaving!

So I’m stuck indoors, with some pencils and paper, and each morning I set aside a couple of hours to do some drawing. I must admit, I’m enjoying the challenge of drawing subjects I would normally never consider. The biggest problem is finding a subject for the next drawing.