A
boy was born the 15th of may 1951 in Cambridge, his mother originates
from Scotland and his father from London. They were both working
as nurses, neither of them nor the grand-parents were artists,
and Stanley will be the only son.
His father's father was Director
of the Ceylan's railways (now Sri Lanka). His grand-parents
from his mother's side died during the second world war. Nothing
seemed to predestine Stanley to become an artist, and yet when
he was 5 years old, he started to paint and from that time nothing
has stopped him.
His father was his first "supporter"
by offering to him tubes of paint and brushes. Stanley was lucky
because both of his parents were happy to see their son wanting
to be an artist and they started to help him since the beginning
of his career.
An interesting event was going
to happen to our little Stanley, in Oakington School, Cambridgeshire,
where his parents settled : he was eight years old when the
Director chose him to offer to Her Majesty the Queen
who was visiting the school, an enormous chocolates box, so
big that one could hardly see stanley behind it, but it is probably
from this event that Stanley will start to want to paint the
great people of this world, to be always in contact with them.
Later on, the family left Manchester
and came back to Cambridge. Stanley went to a private school
called burnt Norton, Gloucestershire.
The great american poet T.S. Eliot has written a poem
about it.
Stanley received a tradionnal
education and also began to draw and paint, and he was rewarded
: he was 15 years old when he created posters drawn and painted
in watercolour for OXFAM ( Oxford Comitee for FAMine relief),
and he received the first prize of the best poster in the school.
From his childhood, Stanley
wanted to be an artist, and he knew he would become an artist,
because it was his destiny.
When he finished his studies,
he didn't want to go to an Art School. He was 16 years olds,
and he wanted to learn by himself the different techniques of
drawing and painting, by going to Art Museums, reading Art books,
and by painting. The books, the copies of the work of great
painters of the past will help him to have a classical education.
He likes the atmosphere and
the style of the Italian painters ( Raphaël, Michel-Angelo,
Leonardo da Vinci ), the Dutch ( Rembrandt, Franz Hals), the
Flemmish (Rubens), the French ( Greuze, Chardin,Bouguereau,
Vigié-Lebrun,Hyacinthe Rigaud, Léon Bonnat, Maurice
Quentin de La Tour, David), the English ( Gainsborough).
About Sculpture, his preferences
are greek classical art, and also Italians like Michel-Angelo
and Bellini.
The italian's sfumatos and
the flemmish glaze are going to inspire Stanley in his classical
style; he paints with a large palette of colours, creating warm
atmospheres.
His favourite colours are
: dark brown, "bordeaux", carmin, orange, and
also deep emerald green enlightened by titanium white. Dark
colours, but extremely luminous painting, warmed by his
orange and cadmium yellow.
He was 16 years old when he
painted his first self-portrait. It will take 34 years before
Stanley decided to do a second self-portrait.
In England, to earn his living,
Stanley painted children, pets, dogs, cats, horses.
When he was 17 years old he
painted a fresco in a Catholic Church, London, representing
Christ, the Virgin Mary and St John the Baptist.
When he was 19 years old, he
went travelling all over Europe : Belgium, the Netherlands,
Sweden, Italy, Germany... He was painting, visiting Museums.
In Holland, he had orders for
portraits, met people - some will become friends.
In USA, he went to the Metropolitan
Museum.
Then, he came back to London
- the head full of images - and he kept on painting.
In 1979, in Bordeaux, France,
an exhibition of his paintings was filmed by the television.
He was filmed in company with Mr Chaban-Delmas, former
Prime-Minister, and at that time , Maire of Bordeaux. Stanley
had a private meeting with him, and he will paint five portraits
of this nice person, who will introduce him in the "bourgeoisie"
of Bordeaux. Jacques Chaban-Delmas ordered him also a portrait
of Charles de Gaulle.
When he was 28 years old, he
went to Lyon, and was presented to a person who was going to
change his life : a young "Lyonnaise" with green eyes.
It is love at first sight; Stanley settled in France.
He has done exhibitions in
several towns of France : Paris, Neuilly, Bordeaux, Lyon, Nantes,
Deauville, La Rochelle... , receiving prizes and rewards ( Prize
of Drawing in Cognac 1977, prize "finaliste" in Deauville
1983, Sceau et Médaille de la Ville de Lyon 1999).
The second personality to whom
he was going to be introduced was Monsieur Jacques Chirac,
former Prime Minister of France, and Maire of Paris. "A
person very human and generous", says Stanley.
P. Ch. Krieg, deputy of Ile
de France, saw Stanley in this exhibition in the townhall of
the 4th arrondissement in Paris, and ordered him his portrait
and one of Monsieur Jacques Chirac. Later on, in 1983, Monsieur
Chirac, gave to S. Parkins the Médaille d'Honneur
de la Ville de Paris.
An admirer of President
Mitterrand commissionned Stanley Parkins to paint a portrait
of Monsieur Mitterrand after a photograph.
Then, Stanley Parkins travelled
in the united States, in England, and painted the portraits
of several important personalities, some of them asking him
to keep it private.
Stanley Parkins exhibited the
portrait of Princesse Chantal de France in the Salon
d'Automne, Grand Palais, Paris in 1991, where she came personally
to view the painting of herself. He became the official portraitist
of the French Royal Family by doing the portrait of the
Princess' Children, her husband, some of her brothers and sisters,
and her mother the Comtesse de Paris.
One year later, in 1992, in
Salon d'Automne, Grand Palais, he did another exhibition with
the portraits of Alexander of Yougoslavie and his wife Barbara.
They were also present at this exhibition.
By word of mouth, in 1993,
he started to paint the portrait of the Archbishops and
Bishops of England, and during 4 years, he has been travelling
from France to England non-stop.
And now, with the bishops being
an intermediary, he is on the waiting list to paint a portrait
of her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II.
Stanley travels in Europe,
in England, where he is commissioned to paint portraits of children
of the english "bourgeoisie". The english people are
very fond of his still lifes and landscapes.
Also in Italy, he has orders of portraits.
He keeps on travelling to the
USA but he likes to come back home to Lyon, France.
version française