“Storks are both the national bird of Ukraine and Lithuania, deeply intertwined with folklore, tradition, and cultural beliefs. They embody concepts of peace, family, home, birth and prosperity.”

“These flocks appearing in twinned cities across both countries seems, to my mind at least, an apt way of symbolizing hope and transnational solidarity in a challenging time for Ukraine and Europe.”

“Flock” or Pulkas as it is titled in Lithuanian, is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Lithuanian city of Marijampole. It depicts a flock of white doves on the side of a passport office.

“Planned Mistakes” – Painted as part of Malonny 11, Marijampole, Lithuania, 2024

Halcyon Days 

Will Teather’s latest collection of paintings, Halycon Days, finds the artist shifting direction in terms of both subject matter and palette.  These day-glo compositions reflect themes of the sublime and childhood wonderment.  Teather’s models are often drawn from independent circus and theatre communities, but in many of these latest paintings the models are the artist’s own family and friends   

Night scene – oil on canvas – 45.5 x 56cm

“I created a series of paintings which extensively incorporated observational drawing of live models and props over an extended period. As an artist exploring realist painting, this is a departure from my previous reliance on photography and collage as source material.

I developed props and costumes to work from, to create magical realist narratives that explore contemporary ideas of the uncanny. This has led to a growing body of surreal compositions, informed bu this process.”

The Age of Panic is a collection of paintings by Will Teather, exploring consumerist hysteria. These modern reimagings of baroque imagery depict modern day dramas such as panic-buying. The works are intended to explore the emotional attachment and passions surrounding objects of desire within late-capitalism, from loo roll to Adidas, and the way shopping acts as a gateway to our wider emotions.

These artworks are placed within their natural habitat of shopping arcades and boutiques.

Behind the painting process…

Magical-realist painter, Will Teather, explains his technique:

I often try to create compositions that convey a sense of otherworldliness through the subtle distortion of perspective, yet also evokes a sense of nostalgia through their old-world painting techniques. This painting of the singer Ana Silvera uses similar techniques to my recent works for the Age of Panic.

1 The Source Material

Whilst I always like to do studies from life to familiarise myself with a sitter’s features, a very detailed painting like this tends, for convenience, to be developed with the aid of reference photographs.  I took a series of shots of Ana, both in the studio and around my home city of Norwich, where we visited a curiosity shop tucked up a side alley of the historic Elm Hill. 

The painting was created with the aid of about a hundred photographs, most of which were taken in situ at Elm Hill Antiques and Curios, both on the day that Ana came and during some later visits which I made as my ideas developed.  Some of these photos were turned into a collage which formed the basis of the final composition. This gives the painting a nice higgledy piggledy sort of feeling: the more you study it the less that things seem quite right: the curve of the paving stones, the way the table tips off the edge of the frame, or the fact that the beams of the ceiling are almost facing you.  It combines countless perspectives much in the way that an eye does as it travels around a room.  I’ve subsequently found out that this kind of technique was pioneered by David Hockney in his photo-collage works, although I would prefer to align it with the work of a group of earlier German painters that originated the magical-realist mode of painting.  Their work was described by the critic Franz Roh as presenting a “mildly transfigured reality,”  and a key feature of this was a disregard for traditional and realistic perspective. This is particularly evident in the 1920s paintings of Otto Dix, where floors are upturned and shadows fall at unusual angles bringing a sense of the uncanny to the works.

2. The Underpainting

Once the initial collage was completed, and Ana had given it the go ahead, I prepared a primed panel with a mid-tone ground of grey/green acrylic and drew the picture out in as much detail as possible.  I then completed an under-painting using thin layers of acrylic. The only colours used in this stage were a creamy white for highlights and a black mixed with turquoise for the shadows, with the grey/green ground forming the middle tones.  Under-paintings are useful for giving a general tint to a final image and I chose this palette to imbue the portrait with a calmness and sense of nostalgia.  I worked with acrylic diluted to the consistency of milk for most of this stage, using broad washes for larger areas, whilst using a fine brush to hatch some of the gradations within the skin tones. 

3.The Glazes

Once I had established the basic tones, I started over-painting more colours across the image.  These washes were kept translucent with water so that the tones and hues of the under-painting were not lost.  Lying the panel flat,  I varied the consistency of the mix of acrylic to water across the dress to achieve a marbling affect that helps the fabric to shimmer.  For smoother glazes such as those over the arms and face, I added a little acrylic glazing medium to help the paint go on evenly, helping to represent the luminous glow of her skin. The varied tone of the tiles was achieved by mixing a lot of different colours together wet into wet, keeping the paint very dilute and leaving it to dry afterwards overnight. 

4.The Details and Highlights

I then started adding detail to different parts of the image in more opaque colour.  I also continued drawing in additional elements that add interest to the composition, such as the photo of the little girl in the corner who maybe relates to the protagonist’s past.  A gilded frame in the top right of the background contains the doves from an earlier picture of mine, called 11pm to Stonehaven.  I brought almost everything within the image to a similar level of clarity, with objects brought into sharp focus around the protagonist.  There is a distinct crispness that can be achieved when working with acrylic on panel, due to its smooth surface and lack of tooth.

This level of detail across the image relates to another artist identified as exemplifying early magical-realism; Alexander Kanoldt. In Kanoldt’s paintings, all the objects are given equal significance in the composition.  The clarity and lack of emphasis on any one object is often said to provide the distinct magical aspect to his paintings.

5. The Finishing Touches

As the portrait entered its final stages I reworked the tones across the image.  I enhanced the sense of contrast between the light and shade in areas that are foregrounded, whilst letting items that are further away from the viewer sink back more into mid-tones. This principal is known as aerial perspective, and reflects the way nature scatters light across distances, meaning that the further away something is, the less contrast that it possesses. 

I added the skeleton last since I knew that Ana didn’t want it to be too dominant within the painting.  She has a photograph of the painting without the full skeleton for use on her EP.  To make it enter into conversation with the rest of the composition,  I made the skeleton look as if it was somewhat mimicking her posture.  

With thanks to Norwich Arts Centre and Arts Council England for supporting this project.

Strangers’ Hall hosts five new paintings designed by artist Will Teather, that deconstruct the composition of historical artworks within the museum collection.  The artist’s new paintings are hung side by side the originals, helping visitors see the museum collections afresh.

The artist’s fractured reinterpretations reference both pixilation and the long-standing idea of sacred geometry and energy points within historical paintings. 

Will Teather explains: “The Georgian Dining Room of Stranger’s Hall seems like a perfect setting for this project.  The paintings of this period are often very carefully composed, including the examples here in the museum’s collection.  My fractal reinterpretations are intended to explode the geometry implied within these historical compositions around their key energy points.  The results have often been described as somewhat psychedelic and seem like a glitched version of the originals.  I often feel like historic paintings are other worldly, acting as a portal into the past, and these new paintings respond to this in many ways.  The new artworks are intended as both reactionary and revolutionary, celebrating the underlying structures of realist painting yet creating an almost automated response. The painting process is a mixture of careful planning, painting with a restricted pallet appropriate to the artwork and a series of specialist glazing techniques of my own design.”

Supported by Arts Council England, Norfolk Arts Service and Norwich Arts Centre.

The artist would also like to thank his assistants for this project, Sarah Beare and Vicky Khun

Queen – 60 x 80cm – Acrylic and oil on canvas

This page showcases recent works by Will Teather and Anthony Asbury.

The collaborative artworks depict contemporary living, yet draw upon the aesthetic traditions of baroque painting and eighteenth century genre painters such as Joseph Wright of Darby. Bringing up to date Wright’s exploration of the industrial age in paintings such as An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768), these new works draw upon digital technology and modern devices that illuminate the protagonists. Often the characters in these new paintings seem both socially connected and disconnected by the technology that surrounds them.

About the Artists

Will Teather met Anthony Asbury when the latter attended the artist’s classes at Norwich University of the Arts, where they struck up a friendship. Asbury was at the time rekindling his interest in drawing, following early retirement from running his Product Design and Manufacturing business. Asbury took a strong interest in Teather’s paintings, which later led to collaborative ideas being developed. The pair bonded over an interest in contemporary art and historical paintings, and from the onset challenged each other to explore new adventures within their creative endeavours.

Will Teather is well-known for creating artworks that combine an unusual imagination with a mastery of traditional skills. The artist’s personal paintings often depict curious characters caught up in extraordinary situations.

Having trained in London at Central St Martins and Chelsea College of Art, Teather featured in exhibitions and publications internationally, receiving numerous grants and scholarships and being a finalist in international art prizes. He has been awarded spells as Artist-in-Residence for venues in New York, Aberdeen and Norfolk. Work is held in public and private collections in the UK and overseas. He remains an Associate Lecturer at Norwich University of the Arts.

As an artist, Asbury regards himself as predominantly self taught, although he has had a long standing interest in the arts that included a friendship with East Anglian landscape painter George Roberts, who mentored him in the craft of painting with oils. In 1972 he attended Keswick Hall College of Further Education, majoring in Painting. For his special study he focused the development of “Solid and Transparent Dyed Polyester Resins as a Painting Medium”; achieving a distinction and a BEd degree.

Alongside developing these compositions with Teather, in 2015 Asbury started working on his own acrylic paintings. His main subject matter is narrative portraits – mostly of acquaintances, or other interesting people in their natural surroundings.