About the artist
 
Hugo Grenville was born in 1958. Although he first exhibited in London at the Chelsea Arts Society at the age of 15, it took him another 14 years to become a full time painter. After leaving school he travelled the Hippy Trail to India, ran out of money, joined the Coldstream Guards and served as an officer in Northern Ireland, West Africa, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) during the Civil War, and finally as an Aide-de-Camp to C-in-C British Army of the Rhine, during which time he painted whenever possible, and studied part-time at Chelsea School of Art and Heatherley's.

Working first in advertising and then as an art dealer, he finally submitted to the need to paint full time in 1989. Since then he has held 14 One Man Shows (including 8 with Messum's in Cork St and recently with Wally Findlay International in New York and Palm Beach), has painted portraits of leading figures including the late Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Runcie and the counter-tenor Michael Chance in the role of Orpheus at the ENO, has been an Official War Artist in Bosnia, has written regularly for The Artist magazine, and lectures in London and at his summer school on Colour and Twentieth Century Painting.

Collections

Work is represented in corporate, institutional and private collections in UK, USA, Canada, France, Hong Kong and Australia, including:

  • Edinburgh City Council
  • The Worshipful Company of Ironmongers
  • The Ministry of Defence
  • The China Club, Hong Kong
  • The Tresco Estate
  • Pembroke Management
  • The Duke of Devonshire
  • Searcy's
  • Duke's Hotel  St James's
  • The Earl of Verulam

Commissions have included:

  • Working as an Official War Artist in Bosnia during the final phase of the Balkans War
  • Making a very large painting of the Tercentenary Celebrations at Chatsworth for the late Duke of Devonshire
  • Working at English National Opera with Counter-Tenor Michael Chance on a painting of "Orpheus and Eurydice"
  • Producing a major Millenium picture of the casting process in an iron foundry for the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers

 

  

 

Hugo Grenville
Hugo Grenville
 
Publications

2008
“Art and the Gardener”

How fine painting has inspired garden design

By Gordon Hayward

   Art and the Gardener

 
Hugo Grenville is a regular contributor to 'The Artist' magazine and is currently working on a book about how to interpret art.



 

 
website & images © Hugo Grenville