CURRICULUM VITAE
& below A BIOGRAPHY by Lynn Brown
HAZEL SOAN
British Artist: Contemporary Figurative Painter, Author & Presenter,
Oils, Acrylics, Watercolours
BA Hons Fine Art, Camberwell and Leicester
Awards:Holbrook Trust Prize,1976 Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery. SAA book and video of the year 1999
Exhbitions
One-man shows: 25 solo exhibitions London and UK Galleries. Anna Mei Chadwick. Moreton, Addington. Abroad: British Institute Venezuela. Standard Bank Zimbabwe. European Union Namibia
Group shows inc: Royal Academy, Mall Galleries, Barbican, Nottingham Castle Museum, Midland Open, CCA Gallery Tokyo, London Contemporary Art USA. David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation. Oslo Art Fair, Galleries London & UK. Richmond Gallery. Whitewall Galleries Auctions: Christies UK (DSWF), Sotheby’s (UK & Johannesburg), UK Provincial, Royal Caribbean Cruise Liners.
Major Charity Auctions: London, House of LordsTug of War, Dublin,Wave, Los Angeles. Washington DC.
Museum & Corporate Collections inc: The National Portrait Gallery London (profile of Bill Brandt), Trowbridge Museum & Art Gallery, Europe House EU Southern Africa (Stairwell mural), and paintings in reception, BBC, Rediffusion, BP, Tricentrol, Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, British Lung Foundation, The Lister Hospital, The Ritz Hotel London & The Ritz Club, Other London Hotels & Celebrity Restaurants, Durban Hilton (Atrium Murals), Hotels worldwide. Cubby Broccoli (James Bond films), Methodist Church CFB, London, Skybound,SA. Numerous Private collectors worldwide
Major Commissions inc: The Ritz Club & Ritz Hotel London Calendar 2000-2009. Hilton Hotel, Durban foyer murals and print series, Conrad Hilton Chelsea Harbour, London, paintings for 2nd floor landings. Rand Corporation, USA, interior designs for Boeing 747. Playboy Club paintings, Maxims, invitations, plates and cards, Clermont Club, invitations, cards,Corporate and Private Portraits, Series for Central Methodist Finance Board. Theatre for Africa/Ford Foundation Rio+10.
Lectures & Training Workshops: QE2, Museo de Bellas Artes Venezuela, International Women’s Club Cape Town, Spencer Scott Travel, Saunders Waterford Papers Patchings Arts Festival, University of Arts London Graduation Ceremony, National College of Arts Katatura Namibia, Fredericks Foundation UK
Television: Well known to UK television audiences through role as 'Art Expert' on ‘Watercolour Challenge' (Channel 4, 2000/1/2) and presenter of painting series 'Splash of Colour' (Anglia TV 1996/7).
Satellite TV Painting & Drawing Channel 2008 to date
Appearances on BBC’s ‘Great Picture Chase’ and ‘Wish You Were Here’, Central TV Live debate.
Presenter of 9 DVDs on painting, mainly in watercolour.
Publications: Author of 11 books on painting (Batsford, HarperCollins, Search Press), mainly in watercolour.
Prints: Limited Edition prints published by De Montfort Fine Art, DSWF, London Contemporary Art, Christies Contemporary Art, Solomon & Whitehead. Reproductions published by Rosentiels, Bancrest, Washington Green, & USA publishing houses.
Articles: Bimonthly contributor to Norwegian Art Magazines, Kunst & Kunst For Alle. Contributor to UK art magazines inc the Artist, Leisure Painter,Artist & illustrator.
Studio & Gallery in Fulham, London & Studio in Cape Town.
Contact
Soan Studio, Crookham Rd, London SW6 4EG
Tel/Fax + 44 207 736 4880
Email
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
UK mobile 0777 358 9995
Cape Town cell: + 27 766 104 902
www.hazelsoan.com www.allsoanup.com
HAZEL SOAN
Biography by Lynn Brown SASA South African Society of Artists
Hazel grew up in the UK and graduated with a BA hons in Fine Art after studying painting at Camberwell and Leicester Art Colleges. She was awarded the Holbrook Trust Prize from Nottingham Museum and Art Gallery in 1976 and within a year of her graduation was earning a living by her paintings: her watercolours sold out within the first hour of her first exhibition in London. Hazel has since held over 25 solo exhibitions, heeding the advice of one of her college professors-‘Always have an exhibition on the horizon’. She has held exhibitions from as far afield as Namibia, Venezuela, South Africa & Zimbabwe, to closer to home in the UK. She took advice from the same lecturer when he told her to have a studio of her own where she could work uninterrupted and also to travel in order to avoid getting in a rut.
She now has a studio in West London and another in Cape Town.
Hazel has always loved the written word and began writing articles and books about painting in the 1990’s. Analysing visual practice became an interesting challenge. She has now written 11 books, mostly on watercolour, published by Batsford, HarperCollins and Search Press. She contributes articles regularly to magazines such as The Artist & Leisure Painter and has been writing a bimonthly artcle for the leading Art Magazine, Kunst, in Norway for the last 4 years.
In 1996, with a desire to communicate her passion to a wider audience, Hazel took up the offer of her own television series ‘Splash of Colour’ with Anglia TV. This propelled her into the public eye and later brought her the role as an Art Expert on Channel 4’s ever popular painting programme ‘Watercolour Challenge’. Her natural enthusiasm and engaging personality won the hearts of millions of viewers and her talents as a communicator made her much in demand for lectures, workshops, painting holidays and demonstrations, taking her from the QE2 to the Kalahari Desert.
A significant part of Hazel’s artwork is by commission, for the last 10 years she has painted the Ritz Club Calendar for the Ritz Hotel, London. Many other works hang in hotels, hospitals and other public and corporate buildings, including the two huge murals that grace the atrium of the Durban Hilton in South Africa and the Black Christ hanging in Nazareth House.
She has participated in numerous mixed exhibitions including the Royal Academy, Barbican, Midland Open, Mall Galleries, many London and provincial galleries, USA and Tokyo.
The main themes of her contemporary, figurative oils and watercolours explore the individual and group shapes of people, animals and landscapes, surrounded or backed by light. Her work is represented in private, public and corporate collections worldwide, including the National Portrait Gallery in London, who recently acquired a drawing of the photographer Bill Brandt for its collection.
Hazel has been travelling in Africa since 1981 and now shares her life between London and Cape Town. For many years Hazel has been passionate about the African Continent. Her painting forays have taken her into Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and South Africa. Whilst on safari she paints in watercolour for speed and ease of transport but creates larger works and paintings in oil and acrylic back in her studio.
The people of Africa and their association with each other features prominently in much of her work. Especially in paintings from the Cape & Malawi. The Cape Peninsula has also been an important inspiration.
END
Lynn Brown SASA South African Society of Artists
