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Francis Hamel

Francis Hamel (born 1963)[1] is a British painter based in Oxford. He is known for landscapes and portraits.[2]

Early life and education

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Hamel attended Summer Fields School in north Oxford and Marlborough College, and studied at the Ruskin School of Art (1982-1985) while a student of Magdalen College.[2]

Career

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In a 1995 Sunday Times article Hamel was quoted as saying that only two others of his 30 contemporaries at the Ruskin School of Art were earning a living as professional painters, and that "the most important thing is just painting pictures all the time. It takes a terribly long time to get even half decent at it. There is also a measure of luck thrown in. At the moment people seem to want to buy the kind of pictures I'm painting."[3] He had sold more than a quarter of the works in his first one-man exhibition by the end of the private view.[3]

Hamel's portrait of Brian Fall (2002) is in the collection of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.[1]

In 2008 he was commissioned to paint a large group of works for the refurbished Fortnum & Mason store in London.[4]

In 2015 and 2016 he painted a commissioned series of portraits of the 25 past holders of the University of Oxford's Cameron Mackintosh Professorship of Contemporary Theatre.[5] These were displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2019, causing some controversy as they included a portrait of Kevin Spacey who had held the chair in 2008.[6][7]

Hamel's 2020 exhibition Painting the Yellow Mountain at the John Martin Gallery showed painting resulting from trips to China and Hong Kong in 2019.[8]

Hamel lives in a cottage in the grounds of Rousham House and during lockdown in 2020-2021 made a series of 80 paintings of the gardens while they were closed to the public.[9] These were exhibited at Rousham and at the John Martin Gallery in London in October and November 2021,[10] and published with essays by various writers as The Gardens at Rousham (Clearview, 2021: ISBN 978-1908337610).[11]

In October 2021 Hamel appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity.[12]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Francis Hamel". artuk.org. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  2. ^ a b Mayhew Craddock, Sarah (26 March 2015). "Francis Hamel hits the circus". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  3. ^ a b Hague, Helen (23 April 1995). "The fine art of ..." Sunday Times: Art. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  4. ^ "Projects". Francis Hamel. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  5. ^ Hardyment, Christina (15 April 2016). "Painting the most colourful professors". Oxford Today. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  6. ^ "V&A Defends Plan to Exhibit Kevin Spacey Portrait". Frieze. 16 April 2019. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  7. ^ Harris, Gareth (12 April 2019). "Portrait of Kevin Spacey going on show at V&A raises questions". The Art Newspaper - International art news and events. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  8. ^ "Painting The Yellow Mountain". John Martin Gallery. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  9. ^ "Francis Hamel in conversation with Tom Stuart-Smith". Garden Museum. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  10. ^ Richardson, Tim (28 September 2021). "A love letter to one of Britain's best-kept secrets". The Telegraph. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
  11. ^ "Series 16, Episode 1". The Museum of Curiosity. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 4 October 2021.
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