Born in Hertfordshire, England, in 1967, contemporary figurative artist Fletcher Sibthorp has had a highly successful painting career since graduating from Kingston University in 1989. Widely recognised for his balletic explorations of the human form, Fletcher produces modern dance and portrait works which explore movement and its subsequent effects on the body.
Fletcher Sibthorp’s Style and Practice
Fletcher’s recent quiet paintings capture moments of introspection and frailty, merging technical aspects of classical oil painting and modern aesthetics. Dominant themes in these portraits include an exploration of light, texture, and figure, which come together to form subtle yet mesmerising artistic narratives.
The artist shapes his work around traditional and contemporary practices, incorporating a process of disruptive, expressive mark-making and classical painting techniques. His approach involves a gradual layering of paint and texture to observe the infinite smallness and bigness of things and celebrate the music of chance. His expressionistic paintings spring from serendipitous applications of paint, sand, wax and precious metals.
Awards and Exhibitions
In 2014, Fletcher was the Winner of the ARC (Art Renewal Centre) Salon in three categories; Best Nude, Chairman's Choice Award, and Honourable Mention in the Figurative Category Award. Fletcher won the Fine Art Trade Guild's poll as the most successful living British print artist of 2006, thus receiving the John Solomon Award. He has featured in several publications and exhibited globally from London to Kyoto to Hong Kong. His work is in private and corporate collections in the United Kingdom and Japan. BP, British Airways, British Telecom, Sony Records, and The Royal Shakespeare Company are among the many to have commissioned Fletcher for his work. He has also painted several celebrity figures from the dance world, notably Royal Ballet principals such as Darcey Bussell, Sarah Lamb, Miyako Yoshida and Alina Cojocaru, and the renowned flamenco performers, JoaquÃn Cortés, Eva Yerbabuena and Sara Baras.
