Feature: Art - Interview with artist Mike Biddulph - Impressions of Water at the Rosslyn Arms, Hampstead until Sept 30th

Published: 09 September 2010
by JOSH LOEB

WHEN artist Mike Biddulph talks about painting, his enthusiasm is infectious. “When I go and see the paintings in Kenwood House, I am transfixed,” he says. “If you stare at the figures for long enough, they begin to breathe.”

The 64-year-old former life drawing teacher at the Royal Academy, who has lived in Hampstead for nearly 30 years, has a day job working in a hostel run by nuns that is located behind the Royal Free Hospital.

He regularly paints on the Heath and is currently exhibiting a series of works on the theme of water at the Rosslyn Arms, in Rosslyn Hill. 

Twice a year he goes to Greece. “It’s not a holiday,” he says. “I go there to do a job.” 

He gets up before sunrise every day and goes to the beach, where he has a five or ten minute window during which the colours in the sky are just right.

“I work on the location with pastels,” he says. “My work’s founded on drawing and the ability to draw in a superlative way. I’m going away on Friday to get the information I require for the rest of the year.”

The key to sketching fast is all in the wrist, and to help him capture sunrises at lightning speed, Mr Biddulph took up darts and studied Japanese painting techniques. 

He decided to exhibit at the Rosslyn Arms in part because he dislikes West End galleries.  

“I don’t like the pressure of walking into them,” he says. “You get a certain type of person who goes into Bond Street galleries, but it’s quite nice walking into a pub and seeing paintings there. 

“Here there is no pressure on me to sell and they don’t take any commission. As far as I can see a gallery takes 50-60 per cent – a considerable amount.”

• Impressions of Water by Mike Biddulph is at the Rosslyn Arms, Rosslyn Hill, Hampstead, until September 30.