Revolve Gallery

Norman Long

Norman Long has established a reputation among the foremost figurative artists in the UK. His oil portraits have twice been featured in the BP portrait award and Royal Society of Portrait Painters exhibitions and most recently he was awarded the coveted de Laszlo Award for portraiture for his portrait of Walter Long. This Lancashire artist has become not only first choice portrait painter for Manchester, Liverpool and the North West of England, but a respected portrait artist throughout the UK.

Norman’s sensitivity, however, extends to a whole range of subjects. He creates painterly and light- filled oil paintings for exhibition and to commission which include figurative paintings, landscapes and still life.

Background

Norman Long was born in 1976 in Preston. He received his BA in Fine Art from Newcastle University and did a Post Baccalaureate course at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in the United States. His work has been exhibited widely in the UK including in National Portrait Gallery, Royal College of Art, Royal Cornwall Museum and at the Mall Galleries. Norman has also exhibited abroad and has been featured in several publications.

Inspiration

Norman favours subjects of people in public places such as cafes because of the fascinating relationships that arise. He says that “Sketching people unaware is one of the most exciting, unpredictable experiences an artist can have. There is a real urgency in attempting to capture character, space and relationships before the subject moves or the light changes.”

Inspired by artists such as Degas and Edward Hopper, Norman’s work seeks recreate a glimpse of nature, bringing the excitement of a momentary gesture or light effect into the studio.

To canvas

In the tradition of his heroes, Norman combines the full range of techniques for creating his compositions. While he does use the aid of photographs in some paintings, others are painted entirely from life, others from drawings. “The freedom to invent and rearrange a scene, to convincingly adjust a figure for more expressive effect, only comes from regularly painting from life.”

There is often a mysterious sense of a story unfolding in Norman’s paintings – an awareness of life beyond the edges of the canvas. However, the threads of the narrative are rarely tied down by the artist, leaving the viewer to complete the picture.