António Macedo (Born 1955)
António Macedo is a Portuguese fine artist who studied at the Oporto School of Fine Arts and has a Bachelor Arts degree of the Open University in the United Kingdom. As a result of the years spent in London and elsewhere in the United Kingdom, his work shows clear influences of Anglo-Saxon culture. He works mainly as a painter and sculptor, with a definite realist style, and he is also known as a portrait painter.
Having had training in sculpture at Art School, he started to produced pieces of sculpture from 1986 onwards. His ever-present interest in painting materials and techniques developed through the close study of works from the past, the conservation work done in collaboration with picture restorers, through the production of copies and works inspired in the great periods of picture-making.
In 1975, António moved to London, and later on to Tunbridge Wells, where after training with a local picture restorer, he became a technical consultant to the Pantiles Gallery, in that town. His work as a painter was then promoted by John Whiteley Ltd, in London and later on by W.H. Patterson Gallery in Albemarle Street, London.
Unsatisfied with the teaching methods at Art School, he takes up residence in London, where continues his research in the painting methods of the past and makes some contacts amongst practicing artists of the day. Two painters were of great help in this period: Daniel Samuels, and Harold Hitchcock.
Later, in 1977, he moves to Tunbridge Wells, Kent, where after training with a local picture restorer, he became a technical consultant to the Pantiles Gallery, in that town, and becomes part of a small group of artists whose work is promoted by the Pantiles Gallery.
He participates in several collective shows in Portugal, in the U.K, Japan and France, during the eighties; his work begins to be promoted and sold through the Christopher Wood Gallery, London, and in 1989, he wins the first prize (Stanley Grimm) at the exhibition of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters (Mall Galleries, London).
From the nineties throughout the present, António Macedo participated in several collective exhibitions throughout the world, most of them organized by Galeria Cordeiros, in Oporto, namely in Portugal, Germany, U.K., Spain, Canada, Turquia, Monaco, India, Mexico, Singapore and USA.
Oil Painting is his medium of choice, and his subjects, other than portraits, include the feminine figure, draperies, still-life, symbolic and magic realism, as well as scenes from ordinary life.
António Macedo painted several portraits of Portuguese public figures, namely presidents, bishops, politicians, and numerous prominent figures from Portuguese society. His paintings can be seen in several institutions, both public and private and he has exhibited both on his own and collectively, national and internationally. His works are referred to and illustrated in numerous publications.
