Jamie Routley, born Newport South Wales, 1982

Jamie Routley moved to Florence in 2004 where he studied under the American painter Charles H. Cecil for four years. Having already completed a BA Hons Degree in Illustration in the UK, this period of four years studying under Cecil was of great significance for Routley. The Charles Cecil Studios is one of the only surviving classical ateliers in the world today: it teaches the fundamental skills in drawing and painting from life and is renowned for producing some of the world’s finest portrait painters. For three of those four years, Routley was also a teacher at the studio.

Charles Cecil teaches a technique called “sight-size” which he says: "allows the artist to depict the subject and image to scale as seen from a given distance. When painting a portrait using the sight-size method, the artist stands back at a given distance from which subject and image are equal to the eye. The canvas is placed alongside the sitter so that the painting is seen to the scale of life.” Sight-size when understood properly “is not merely a measuring technique, but a philosophy of seeing”.

Nicholas Beer, who also taught Routley, writes: "The use of sight-size imparts certain aesthetic and technical attributes to a painting, notably the broad handling that comes into focus when seen at the viewing distance. Its principle aim is unity of effect.”  The idea of standing back to consider the whole canvas in relation to the subject does not relate just to portraiture – it relates to all the creative arts that deal with composition. It is this “philosophy of seeing” which is the key aspect in all of Routley’s work.  Each work or series of works is considered, composed, and executed with this philosophy.  
 
Routley moved to his London studio in 2008 and his work over the past year or so has been concerned with portraiture and landscape painting. In the tradition of the Old Masters, Routley grinds many of his own paints in his West Kensington studio. Routley only works directly from life - at no stage does he ever take a photograph. If he’s painting a landscape, he is outside regardless of the weather. “The beauty of working directly from life is that you become deeply involved with the subject. Painting a portrait doesn’t require the sitter to be rigid and still at all times! This is a common misconception. I like to get to know my sitters; during the sittings we talk, listen to music, the sitters can read from time to time, it’s very relaxed. My job as a painter is to capture something beyond mere likeness. I want to capture the character of my sitters and have them engage with the viewer and vice versa. This is partly why I do not use any photographic reference.”

Routley’s landscape work is concerned with significant moments of change: seasonal, tidal and personal. Possibly his most significant works are his morning Twilights, the landscapes that document the lyrical and ambiguous hours before sunrise. Routley has spent the last two summers in a remote area of southern Sweden investigating this enigmatic light - a rather solitary and nocturnal existence, rising at 2am every morning, painting all day and sleeping only when necessary.

The result, among other works, is ‘Twilight Moon’ above: a painting that captures the conflict between the colours of night and day, and where the landscape is obscured by an ethereal light. The moon in its third quarter emphasises this cycle. The London Twilights are equally as contemplative, a London that many people may not know.

Hyde Park - Twilight I - Oil on canvas          Hyde Park - Twilight II - Oil on canvas

Routley’s work is major corporate and private collections in the UK, Germany, Sweden, London and New York.

Commissions:
Jamie undertakes both portrait and landscape commissions – charcoals sketches from £600, head and shoulders from £2,000, three quarter length portraits from £3,500 and full length portraits from £7,000.

“For a head and shoulders portrait it would be sensible to plan for five sittings. Sittings can range from 2-4 hours, but it really depends on you - 4 hours would be ideal. Full days can be very useful if you have the time. I only work with natural daylight therefore I need to paint during the day. When starting a portrait, it is helpful to have two consecutive days of sittings, this really makes a difference to the finished painting; this allows me to build on top of the previous day’s work whilst the paint is still wet, enabling me to make key corrections where necessary.”

Jamie’s studio is one of the original St. Paul's Studios in West Kensington on the Talgarth Road a couple of minutes from Barons Court underground station.

To see Jamie Routley's online exhibition - Click Here