A fine artist from Norfolk is one of the exhibitors in this year’s BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London, England.
Kyle Hooper’s painting, Theodore, was one of 45 paintings chosen out of more than 2,500 entries from 84 countries. The BP Portrait Award, now in its 40th year, is considered the most prestigious portrait painting competition in the world.
By day, Hooper is a construction worker. When he returns home at night, however, he picks up his brushes, dons his artist persona, and paints.
“I’ve worked construction my whole life,” said Hooper. “It’s what I do. That’s all I know. The two worlds could not be any more different.”
Yet, when you consider that both worlds necessitate Hooper work with his hands, it begins to make sense. Saint Francis of Assisi is quoted to have said, “He who works with his hands is a laborer; he who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman; but he who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.”
Theodore is a portrait of Hooper’s beloved 92-year old grandfather, who passed away before the painting was finished. Hooper was very close to his grandfather, and cared for him in his final years. Theodore was a successful developer who started a construction company after World War II, building homes in wealthy communities. Hooper’s father died when he was very young, and Theodore helped Hooper’s mother raise him in Milton.
“My mother had to work full-time and I was with my grandfather a lot,” said the 33-year-old Hooper. “He was the kindest, most generous, most soft-spoken man. I miss him terribly. I know he would be in tears over this award.”
Theodore was also short-listed for the BP Travel Award, one of the contest’s prizes. The show has been called the Oscars of portraiture, so Hooper’s work is in elite company indeed.
Hooper became interested in art in high school, and went on to study at the Art Institute of Boston and the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. His work won awards, so it was clear he was talented, but like most young artists, he needed another way to make a living.
Hooper’s artwork falls into two distinct camps: still life paintings and portraiture. His still life work is painted on panels which he constructs himself out of marine plywood. He preps the surface so it is almost glass-like, and the resulting paintings are smooth without visible brush strokes or texture. Surface quality is very important to him. Most of Hooper’s still life subjects are the power tools he works with during the day.
His portraiture work is more painterly and fluid in the traditional sense. Although a portrait can seem less exacting than a still life, it’s not effortless. It’s actually harder to decide when a portrait is finished, Hooper notes, saying he never really considered Theodore completed. Rather, when a portrait can stand on its own emotionally, he will stop working on it.
Hooper paints in oil, primarily because it’s difficult, he said. It’s clear he relishes the challenge.
“Everything I do is difficult,” he admitted. “I don’t take any easy routes. I torture the paint, making it do something it doesn’t necessarily want to do.”
Hooper’s works are influenced by a wide range of interests. He enjoys 30s and 40s cinema, jazz, classical music, Pearl Jam, and early 90s grunge.
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“I’ll watch a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie and I’ll see how a background is set up, and while I won’t paint the background, the shapes in it might influence how I set up a still life,” he explained.
Hooper is very self-confident and exacting, knowing what he likes in art and what he wants to accomplish. He says he paints realistically because it’s an important form of expression and a way to connect to people. Fine art, Hooper pointed out, is a type of visual language and a means of communication universally understood by all.
The BP Portrait Award, originally known as the John Player Portrait Award, underscores the significance of contemporary portrait painting, believes Hooper. Although a handful of people control the art world and deem what’s “in,” people instinctively know what they like.
“When over a quarter of a million people go to this exhibition, it demonstrates how important and wanted this type of painting still is,” Hooper said.
In June, Hooper and his wife Sarah flew to London to see the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. The trip was both emotional and exhilarating, and seeing his name in print next to his grandfather’s portrait was a public validation of his love for Theodore and his own talent as an artist.
“I’m proud to be his grandson, and I know he was proud to be my grandfather,” said Hooper. “He was so wonderful and so important to me, and now he’s permanently archived in the National Gallery. It’s very fulfilling to know his image, created by me, will live on in this way.”
Theodore will be on exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery until October 20. The exhibition will then travel to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland and the Ulster Museum in Belfast, Ireland.
For more information about Hooper, visit www.kyledavidhooper.com or contact him by email at [email protected].