Boulevard Blues, 2023

Adam de Ville  

Paris was one of my first foreign destinations, and Montmartre in particular has stayed with me ever since, be it in a romanticised way or simply because the architecture fascinates me. I’m drawn to it each year. I’ve painted many Montmartre scenes, but only a handful of boulevard views. Like Utrillo, I was fascinated by the windows, wondering what stories there were waiting through them. The abstract rendering of the windows reflects my thoughts at the time of visiting and then painting the scene.

I am a self taught painter of landscapes, cityscapes, still life, abstract and portraits. Painting is about storytelling, feeling, character and the moment. I’m interested in painting how a place, person or object moves me. I paint about my experiences, about the duality of feelings I have when I revisit a memory or stand in a scene I’m going to paint. It’s like anchors a sails pulling in different direction. And It’s this tension that fascinates me, between displacement and belonging.

I like to work in terms of rhythm and movement, painting in the moment following a preliminary sketch, impulsive layers of paint and scraffito, generally using mixed media oils, pencil, ink and charcoal.

My influences are Maurice Utrillo, Chaim Soutine, Leon Kossoff, Kyffin Williams, Frank Auerbach, amd street graffiti

Award winner: Wales Contemporary, Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours annual exhibition, Royal Cambrian Academy of art annual exhibition and Royal Birmingham society of artists.
Recent shows include The Pastel Society and ING Discerning Eye at the Mall Galleries, London, and Bath Society of Artists annual exhibition.