Antony Bream
"Drawing is key to Tony Bream's art, giving strength to his impressionistic watercolours and paintings as well as to the work in charcoal. His views of Petra are particularly impressive, and in one of them, the crags above the Bab-es-Siq, he takes on two illustrious predecessors, Bomberg and Roberts - and wins. Where Roberts elongates for picturesque appeal, and Bomberg loses structure in colouring, Bream gives us the power of looming desert rocks. Some of the Jerusalem watercolours make a respectful nod to Sargent, others invoke H. B. Brabazon, that most professional amateur, but whatever the heritage he absorbs, they are quintessential Bream."
Huon Mallalieu, art critic
Antony Bream is a British painter whose work spans portraiture, interiors and landscapes. Celebrated for his expressive draughtsmanship and impressionistic technique, Bream has exhibited widely since his first major show at the Fine Art Society in 1979. His watercolours and oils evoke the spirit of place, from the deserts of Petra to the north Kent coast. Bream (b.1943) has had one-man shows at numerous West End galleries including Derek Johns, St James's Art Group, Messum's and Rafael Valls. He has received major commissions from industry and commerce for large figure paintings, including the much admired Bar picture at Green's Restaurant in St James's.
Bream has worked extensively as a painter of portraits, interiors, and landscapes and has travelled widely, painting en plein air in Australia, India, North Africa, Egypt, Yemen, Turkey, Kenya, the USA and Europe. In 2013 he exhibited paintings of the Holy Land and Petra at the Daggett Gallery, Kensington, and subsequently spent a month painting on the island of North Haven, Maine. More recently he has concentrated on a group of large-scale interiors and still lifes. His landscapes have focused on the north Kent coast and several painting trips to Spain, most recently Segovia and Galicia. To mark their 150th anniversary, Bream was commissioned by the Savile Club in London's Mayfair to paint a series of interiors of the club and portrait studies of members.