Adebanji Alade PROI

Statement

Adebanji Alade's work is all about people and places.

He strives to bring the force and power of the sketch into every piece he embarks on. Adebanji is a strong believer in sketching and he believes everything in art starts with a sketch, so, in his work you'll always feel the power and sense of a captured moment. Adebanji works from life and from photo references but the mission is the same - to bring a lively sketchy feel to the completed piece.

Adebanji likes to focus on people because he loves the play of light, moods, emotions, beauty and the variety that each face brings. He also loves places because he gets inspired by the atmosphere, historical importance, mood and the play of light that a particular place can offer at any point in time.

Methodology

Adebanji works directly from life or from photo references. He paints directly without building up successive layers of paint. He paints shape by shape, a technique he calls inside-out, in which the painting is embarked upon from a spot inside the workspace and he spreads out, still working shape by shape until the whole piece is complete. Adebanji also works from broad shapes to details, a technique he calls outside-in, where the painting starts off with broad strokes to cover the ground and then finished off with details on the inside.

Adebanji mainly works with oils but he uses acrylics, watercolour, pastels, coloured pencils, charcoal and graphite, and he also loves to combine these in mixed media works too.

Bio

1972 Born on 28 February in Hackney London

1992-1997 HND Fine Art, Yaba College of Technology

2003-2005 Diploma in Portraiture, Heatherley's School of Fine Art

2012 Elected an Associate Member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters.

2014 Elected a full member of The Guild of Fine Art, Nigeria

Memberships

Chelsea Art Society, Guild of Fine Art, Nigeria, Urban Sketchers Worldwide, Plein Air Brotherhood