Enid Hutt Gallery blog - Art and Artists News - biography tag

Tragic death of one of the country's greatest contemporary artists

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:05:00 GMT

It is with great sadness that we announce the tragic death of one of the country's greatest contemporary artists - Govinder Nazran. Govinder died on Tuesday 30th December after an accident on Christmas Day which left him with severe head injuries.

Govinders art training began in Bradford in the North of England, where he studied Graphic Design from 1980-1983. After that he then went on to study for a Higher Diploma in Graphic Design, specialising in illustration, at Lincoln Art College.

After completing all his formal training he decided to move to London, approaching all of the major city publishers with his portfolio. It was there that he worked on illustrations for children’s books, and after 6 months moved to Cambridge where and continued working as a freelance illustrator.

Upon moving back to his home town of Saltaire in West Yorkshire, Govinder took up the position of designer for a greetings card company, which involved all aspects of product design and development. Following that he became a photographic art director, directing fashion shoots all over the world. He did this for the next year or so until 1993, when he decided to swap his hectic photographic job and lifestyle, for a quieter life back in Saltaire. He spent the next five years here in the UK, working freelance on card designs with major publishing companies.

It wasn’t until 1999 that he decided to enter the fine art market and approached Washington Green with his portfolio. Since joining them they have published over 40 of his designs and many into sculptures.

2009 would have been the tenth anniversary of Washington Green working with Govinder, a decade of the most amazing and creative art from one of the most talented, gentle and innovative artists they have ever had the pleasure of working with.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.

'It is often the brightest star that burns for the shortest time'.

As a mark of respect, we have withdrawn all Govinder artwork from sale until further notice.

New Jack Vettriano Limited Edition Prints

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:29:00 GMT

We are delighted to be able to announce the release of an exclusive collection of 5 new images from the UK's most popular, and yet most controversial, contemporary artists.

The exclusive 5 new images 3 of which were taken from the Love, Devotion and Surrender exhibition shown at the Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery in June 2006 are each limited to a very small edition of only 250 copies worldwide. A stunning example of Vettriano’s work, these chosen images are already popular with his many fans and in particular featured in the collection is one of the most meaningful paintings to Jack, ‘Long Time Gone’ which features Methil power station which is scheduled to be demolished soon.

Click here to see the collection

Born in Fife, Scotland in 1951, Jack Vettriano left school at sixteen to become a mining engineer. For his twenty-first birthday, a girlfriend gave him a set of watercolour paints and, from then on, he spent much of his spare time teaching himself to paint.

In 1989, he submitted two paintings to the Royal Scottish Academy's annual exhibition; both were accepted and sold on the first day. The following year, an equally enthusiastic reaction greeted the three paintings, which he entered for the prestigious Summer Exhibition at London's Royal Academy and his new life as an artist began from that point on.

Over the last twenty years, interest in Vettriano's work has grown consistently. There have been sell-out solo exhibitions in Edinburgh, London, Hong Kong and New York.

2004 was an exceptional year in Vettriano's career; his best known painting, The Singing Butler was sold at Sotheby's for close to £750,000; he was awarded an OBE for Services to the Visual Arts and was the subject of a South Bank Show documentary, entitled 'Jack Vettriano: The People's Painter'.

From 1994-2007, Vettriano was represented by Portland Gallery in London but the relationship ended in June 2007. Since then, Vettriano has been focusing on a variety of private projects, including the launch of a new book, and painting of a portrait of Zara Phillips as part of a charity fund-raising project for Sport Relief, the experience of which was captured in a documentary broadcast on BBC1 in March 2008.

Vettriano divides his time between his homes in Fife, London and Nice.

Fabian Perez- his life

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:28:00 GMT