Robert Buttle Hannah, oil on canvas, 35½x23½in (90x60cm)
Robert Buttle feels that his career as a portrait painter is just beginning. ‘So far,’ he says, ‘I have entered the exhibition in my village hall, had three paintings accepted in the Ipswich Open Art Exhibition and a painting, Lilly accepted in The Artist and Leisure Painter Open Exhibition 2019 for which I was awarded the Winston Oh prize.
‘I discovered I had a love for drawing at primary school. I was always focused on people and faces, and this hasn’t changed over the years. I’m a great fan of realistic portraiture – whether it be the Dutch Masters, the Pre-Raphaelites or the Renaissance painters. My favourite artist is William-Adolphe Bouguereau. I paint most evenings and weekends, as I work full time as an electrical engineer. Hopefully, in the next few years, there will be the opportunity to spend time doing what I really enjoy, painting faces and possibly taking on commissions. Most of the portraits are done from reference photographs, which I have taken, usually using a single flash with low key Rembrandt lighting to give the effect of highlights and low lights. I would like to have sitters to work from directly, but due to time constraints it’s very hard to do.