ANTHONY GILL, Sailor-Painter.
Born and educated in England to a family whose love of the water and painting goes back more than five hundred years, Anthony was a product of the British boarding school system where he excelled on the playing fields but never in the classroom except in art and thankfully obtained a full scholarship to the prestigious Royal West of England Academy of Art.
Four years of drawing and painting naked models took its toll and even though his tutor thought he might in fact be color blind, Anthony landed a job with British Vogue as Art Editor where it didn't seem to matter. Now he was photographing models more often than not, virtually naked. Weekends were spent out of Cowes where he raced a thirty foot Finot designed sloop aptly named "Bare Bottom" with some success in the Royal Ocean Racing Club offshore series.
Following a surprisingly successful show at the Arnolfino Gallery he was invited to show in New York and never left. Between painting at the School of Visual Arts and dancing at Studio 54 (he convinced his parents that it was an art gallery that only opened in the evenings) he spent many a weekend on the Sound and Sag Harbor aboard his twenty six foot Catboat "Marmalade".
Discovering that advertising seemed to pay rather more than painting Anthony wangled a job with Ogilvy and Mather which meant he could afford a bigger boat. Going along with the premise of bigger job-bigger boat Anthony ended up with an ocean going ketch which he appropriately named "La Chaumiere" after his favorite restaurant and enough loot to sail around the world.
It should be mentioned that he was not alone in this escapade. He met Sarah from Westport; she could sail, didn't suffer from mal de mer and also wanted to sail around the world. Seven wonderful years later moored in Phuket with a six year old scamp named Ollie they decided it was time to get out the old brushes again, do a bit more painting and catch up with the family.
Anthony can now be found painting in his Studio/Gallery located on the "wet" end of Bannister's Wharf surrounded by the two things he loves: paintings and boats. He currently races a J22 with Ollie when he’s not paddle-boarding and lives in a cottage by the beach. And no, he's not color blind; his style of painting is called "Fauvism".
Serious stuff:
London International Awards, Gold Medal.
New York Festival International Awards, Gold Medal.
Newport Art Museum, Art Unfurled Show, Peoples Choice Award.
New York Art Directors Club, Gold Medal and Merit Award.
Newport Art Museum, "A Rakes Progress" Solo Show.
Bodi Modern Art Gallery, "Cape Light" Solo Show.
Hoorne-Ashbury Fine Arts, New York. "New Directions".
Spring Bull Gallery, “Fakes and Forgeries Show”, Best in Show.
Royal West of England Academy, Summer Show.
Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, Solo.
