Portsmouth artist Karl Rudziak hosts painting demonstrations at The Kings Theatre

Local artist Karl Rudziak, known for his affecting portraiture work, is running two painting demonstrations at The Kings Theatre in Albert Road in December 2016.

Those who go along to the demonstrations will have the chance to see how Karl creates his realistic artworks, and talk to him about his methods, processes, and techniques.

One of Karl’s most recognizable pieces is his painting of John Portsmouth Football Club Westwood, Pompey’s most famous fan, who legally made the team’s name part of his.

The painting is a window into working-class identity, straying from an aesthetic ideal in favour of showing a more raw and realistic side to Pompey, and with the football club standing as one of the biggest projections of Portsmouth’s collective identity. The piece has been described as ‘unmistakably Portsmouth’ by many.

The painting has also been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London. It was also displayed in Southampton, where special consideration was taken by safety and security staff due to the animosity between Portsmouth and Southampton’s football teams. The painting was insured for £7,000 prior to the Southampton exhibition.

Rudziak has said of his work: “Painting is a self-imposed discipline. My work is essentially about people. Painting people is a way of connecting to my environment in a way I could never say or write down in words. It is about identity and questioning assumptions of fixity within signs.

“I’m interested in the mechanisms we use to project values on to or judge other people using common cultural visual markers — in semiotic terms, signs — like clothes, haircuts, jewellery, tattoos. How quickly we arrive at value statements and judgements about personality and background by the way someone looks.”

The two demonstrations take place on the following dates and times:

• Wednesday 7th December, from 6:00pm through 9:30pm
• Tuesday 13th December, from 6:00pm through 9:30pm

Both sessions are £25.00. Book your place online through the Kings Theatre website » or by calling the Kings Theatre box office on 02392 828 282.