Monday 12 January 2015

330. TUBE STATION (closed) and (open) by STEVEN HUBBARD

Winter Show at the Medici Gallery, Cork Street




On the left: Tube Station (closed) Marquetry box containing marquetry and oil painting on canvas panel.  30 x 40 x 6cm

On the right: Tube Station (open) Marquetry box containing marquetry and oil painting on canvas.  30 x 76 x 6cm

What a feast! An artwork which combines painting, marquetry, surprise, travel, nostalgia, wit and joi de vivre!
Surprise, because closed, it looks like a content and complete painting: open, it undergoes a joyous transformation into a three dimensional art work .
Nostalgia, because it harks back to those between-the-wars years, the 20s and 30s,  when the convoluted geography of London's underground stations and lines was brilliantly transformed into a simple elegant design which could be read by anyone.
And wit: the squeezed and squashed tubes of paint on the interior depict the colours of the lines on the map: brown for Bakerloo, yellow for Piccadilly and so on.



Steven Hubbard talks of his works often having
 'a three-dimensional element, and ... made using marquetry, carving, painting and gilding, often around an MDF (medium Density Fibreboard) carcass. I originally started making these pieces as a development from the tabernacle frames I created for some of my portraits in the 1980’s. I have always been fascinated by the frames used on the work of many of the the Italian primitives. Excellent examples of these tabernacle frames can be seen in London at the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery'.
(Tabernacle frames vary in their ornamentation but, being three-dimensional, were designed to enhance/protect valuable art works and mirrors).




 Left: By Candlelight Oil on canvas in marquetry 'book' frame 22 x 42 x 9cm (closed)

 Right: By Candlelight Oil on canvas in marquetry 'book' frame 44 x 42 x 9cm (open)

Steven Hubbard again: 
After graduating I have continued to teach part-time whilst devoting myself to my own work, I first practiced as a portrait painter working mostly to commission and subsequently moved on to evolve my own distinctive genre combining painting and print-making with craft, which I consider my most rewarding activities. 
  
www.stevenhubbard.co.uk


www.pinterest.com/hubbard1167/

www.npg.org.uk, (National Portrait Gallery
www.nationalgallery.org.uk



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