UPBEAT, is a an exhibition by Grand Union resident artist , Tony Coombs. These observational illustrations are a part of part The Grand Union Orchestra’s 40th year anniversary celebrations. Pieces have been selected from a series of live works conducted in 2021.
Tony Coombs excels in the challenge of drawing musicians playing. The rhythms, the dynamic sounds and instruments, the musicians movements and concentration – all drive the drawing forward. There is the precarious feeling of change, from moment to moment. When the music is in turn, as joyful, as elegiac, as angry, as life- affirming as the creations of the Grand Union Orchestra, the experience can be intense. All the drawings are done on the spot, directly from observation, (he does not work from photos. All pictures are an artist’s impression, not photographic records). The watercolour painting is a later, more reflective stage in the studio, a way of harmonising the drawings.
Head up to The Lab on the first floor to view the exhibition for free.
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