Alan Hydes - Artist

Alan is an international Fine Art painter living and working in Deia, Mallorca, where he creates paintings, prints and mixed media work.
He trained in the UK and was awarded a First Class Honours degree in FineArt with a supporting study of Art History.
Following University he drove overland to India where he studied Indian Miniature painting and created a photographic record of his 11 months travelling around India, Afghanistan and Iran and eight other countries.
On his return to the UK he lectured in several universities before developing his work on television. His TV series and documentaries featured portraiture, botanical painting and townscapes. He made three TV documentaries with David Hockney, arguably the most important painter of our generation.

Since moving to Deia he has worked on large colourful canvases featuring Mallorcan subject matter such as Almond orchards in flower, Mediterranean seascapes, flowers and swimming girls. He also continued to be commissioned for his portraiture work by well known personalities such as Lord ( Andrew Lloyd) Webber.

Many of his portraits are in the British National Collection and his paintings are in international private and public collections.
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Alan painting an oil sketch on the coast near Cala Deia

For the past 23 years Alan has lived and worked in Mallorca, and has gathered much of his creative inspiration from the island. The location of the studio and house is the beautiful village of Deia, on the West coast overlooking the Mediterranean. The house sits on the side of the mountain range the Serra de Tramuntana, listed World Heritage status (by UNESCO) as an area of ‘Great physical and cultural significance’.

Alan Hydes - Working on a double portrait set in the olive groves

Portrait of Mr and Mrs Pickard in olive groves Deia

Professor Chris Taylor with his portrait at Bradford University

Professor Chris Taylor Vice Chancellor Bradford University.
Commission by the University for permanent collection

Alan Hydes - with completed koi painting

Koi Carp, one of a series of large canvases

Miranda Kerr comes for a Lesson

Thoughout his career Alan has striven to explore his creativity through drawings, paintings and printmaking. His love of draughtsmanship was his first passion as a student and it has continued throughout his life as a painter. " I found drawing to be of inestimable value to the formulation of ideas and my artistic development as a whole “. said Alan “You can’t underestimate the freedom and flexibility drawing provides when initially exploring imagery.
Committing things to paint is actually much easier once the ideas have been pushed around as drawings. It’s rather like providing a foundation for the expression necessary in the painting process.”.

Portrait of Lord Lloyd Webber .. private commission by Lord Webber.

"I learnt to paint figuratively and that discipline provided me with the skills to push the boundaries and be expressive with the media. I explored the media in order to find out what could be achieved - using watercolour, acrylics and oils. The ’Swimming girl’ paintings for example employ a mixed media technique in order to achieve the necessary effects. I firstly draw out the composition and detail of the figure. Then I use diluted acrylics to paint the water .. allowing the light to penetrate to pigment and produce a transparent and reflective effect. The figure is only then painted in oils over the acrylic’s to give it weight, substance and modelling of the form.
Whereas the sunflower paintings for example begin life as detailed charcoal drawings and are then painted over in thick vibrant oil paints to give substance, texture and vibrant colours."