Of Birds and Men

Dilys Finlay-Stephens

01.Mar.07 - 24.Mar.07
Tue-Fri 11.30-6.00, Sat 12-4 or by appt

Rainbird Fine Art
114 Clerkenwell Rd
London EC1M 5SA
020 7608 3333
info@rainbirdfineart.com
www.rainbirdfineart.com
Tube Farringdon, Barbican, Clerkenwell

Dilys Finlay-Stephens’ portraits are inspired by her grandfather, the national American portrait painter Thomas Edgar Stephens. Celebrated for painting the entire Eisenhower cabinet, he later convinced Eisenhower himself to take up painting, and painted the last life portrait of Winston Churchill as Prime Minister.

By contrast, Dilys Finlay-Stephens chooses to concentrate on interpreting her subjects as products of their varied social environments. Her fascinating portraits of London characters are powerful interpretations that communicate both a humour and sadness, putting a spotlight on what it can mean to be older and living in the city.

Fundamental to all her work is the convincing way in which the artist paints texture and detail, particularly in her paintings of birds.

Dilys Finlay-Stephens’ initial interest in birds came from an early age delving through her father’s books with lustrous illustrations by Lear and Demartini. Her extraordinarily beautiful paintings are strongly influenced by Edward Lear’s parrots. Striking giant songbirds, in homage to Lear and Gould, successfully explore questions of scale in the ordinary and everyday, the ‘common or garden’ and, as with her portraits, reveal the often overlooked, enticing the viewer to look more closely.