Vincent Kamp Bio
Surrey-born artist Vincent Kamp is acknowledged as one of the UK’s most exciting new figurative oil painters. Fascinated by the dark, gritty underground world of urbansubculture, his paintings delve beneath the surface of social class.
Heavily influenced by cinema and storytelling, he often writes a complete screenplay before setting out to cast characters for his paintings. Recently he wrote, produced, and directed the short film Queen of Diamonds, starring Georgia May Foote and Tamar Hassan. He followed with the Queen of Diamonds series of paintings.
Recent exhibitions include Diamond Roulette at the Ritz Casino London, his barbershop-inspired series, Fear and Loathing in East London, and Inspired Lives, a celebration of the pianist/songwriter Ruben James.
His 2018 interactive solo show, The Long Game, was comprised of thirty paintings, depicting a gangland poker game that ends in an explosion of violence. His most recent exhibition was After Hours, an homage to Rembrandt at Clarendon Fine Art, Covent Garden London.
Artist Statement
Ever since I can remember I have been telling stories. As a child, I copied cartoons with characters in narrative scenes. My taste gradually changed from the bright comic book colours to the darker, more extreme contrast lighting seen in movies by cinematographers such as Roger Deacon and in the paintings of artists such as Caravaggio and Rembrandt.
My oil paintings are a deep, extensive process of storytelling and concept development. An initial idea is often from a scene in film, TV, or book. It will be sparked by the question: “What if...?” and I begin to answer that question by writing. The idea will evolve over weeks or months, and if it has legs, I’ll write the concept in the format of a screenplay or short story. This helps me to visualize the characters I need to cast (or the subjects of my paintings) and the locations I may need to scout and shoot for reference. After developing the story, I start looking for reference images to sketch ideas for composition and to storyboard the action. I’ll do this both digitally and with pencil in my sketchbook.
If the project is large, I will use a casting director to find exactly the right people. These days I have many actors I like to call upon, so some may appear in a few different paintings. When I’ve determined a location or studio, I hire hair, makeup, and lighting professionals, and even wardrobe stylists to get everything right. Once the scene is set, I shoot all my own reference photos. I’ll shoot close ups of faces, hands, and certain props. The pictures will be cut up and composited in Photoshop before I start to draw the entire scene and colour digitally. I then transfer the image to canvas using either a grid or projector. Depending on how complex the painting is, I’ll paint a grisaille first and then add the colour in a series of layers.
The characters I’m drawn to and the stories I like to tell are rooted in high-risk situations. There must be tension and high stakes that gets the heart pumping and adrenaline flowing. Perhaps because life in the real world is often a little too comfortable and predictable, I find myself daydreaming about a life full of risk and drama, I disappear into my imagination and create.
