Robert Diamant

Thanks for listening.

Good afternoon, good morning, good evening, wherever you are in the world.

I'm Robert Diamant and you're listening to Talk Art.

Welcome to Talk Art.

Today I am in London and I'm in the studio of a dear friend and actually a previous guest of Talk Art.

We did previously discuss

Another side of his life, which was working with the artist Lucian Freud.

And you can go back in the archive and hear that wonderful episode, which I think we recorded at the Royal Academy of Arts.

But today we are here to talk about our guest's own work.

He's been painting for, I think, four decades now.

Yeah, and we are here to celebrate nature in a very simple way, I think is a good way of kind of describing it, because I think nature is such a central part of today's guest's work.

And when I was thinking about how I was feeling today, I was thinking about solitude and being present in nature, but also just in the act of painting.

I think there's something really unique about painting, which is, you know, when you're in front of a blank canvas, the way an artist has to be quite present and at one with themselves, with the paint and maybe with the subject matter.

And the reason it's so interesting that I really want to explore today is this idea of plein air painting.

And our guest has spent a lot of time obviously growing up in Wales, but actually makes paintings in Wales in nature.

And I'm really excited to find out why that is so important in terms of the mark making that comes out of that.

And there's going to be a wonderful exhibition opening at the end of April at Gainsborough House, responding to Constable.

And there's a number of artists who are going to be showing their work, including today's guest.

So it's a really good opportunity to see his work in the UK.

He has had recent exhibitions at Lorcan O'Neill's Gallery in Rome as well.