UNITED KINGDOM: LONDON ARTIST ALAN HALIDAY CREATES AN ARCHIVE OF PAINTINGS OF THEATRE, BALLET AND OPERA PRODUCTIONS SPANNING SOME TWENTY YEARS

Record ID: 192051

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: LONDON ARTIST ALAN HALIDAY CREATES AN ARCHIVE OF PAINTINGS OF THEATRE, BALLET AND OPERA PRODUCTIONS SPANNING SOME TWENTY YEARS
  • Date: 29th July 2004
  • Summary: SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALAN HALLIDAY, ARTIST, SAYING: "I wouldn't want to copy from photographs because photographs already are a distortion even though they are a record nonetheless they are a distortion. They are one frame away from reality. I'd much rather draw from life- from the dancers. It has a freshness and a spontaneity which is much more convincing."
  • Embargoed: 13th August 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Entertainment,General
  • Reuters ID: LVA5YIOX5TNGDAJ870PGD5C15Z1Z
  • Story Text: London artist paints archive of theatre productions, ballets and operas.
    The famous Russian Bolshoi Ballet rehearsing its new production of "Spartacus" at London's Royal Opera House.
    Recording the dancers with ink and paper from the Royal Box is London artist Alan Halliday.
    For over 20 years Halliday has attended dress rehearsals and performances with his sketch pad, inkwell and brush. He draws quickly as the action on stage develops, rapidly turning out drawings which he fills in with colours later.
    Halliday's ambition is to archive major ballets, opera and theatre productions. He already documented paintings from over 700 stage productions.
    The artist describes himself as a "theatre animal": "When I'm drawing the ballet in the theatre it's done from life as the figures are moving. That is the challenge- to capture the dancers as they are moving through the air. And I have to train my hand and my eye to move as quickly as the dancers and get the image down onto the paper as quickly as possible."
    In an age of digital imaging Halliday's work seems almost out of fashion. But that does not deter him. He believes that painting from life brings a unique quality of immediacy to his pictures.
    "I wouldn't want to copy from photographs because photographs already are a distortion even though they are a record nonetheless they are a distortion. They are one frame away from reality. I'd much rather draw from life- from the dancers. It has a freshness and a spontaneity which is much more convincing."
    Halliday works as quickly in his studio as he does in the theatre. He fills in the colours and textures of sets and costumes from memory. He uses water-colour paints for the Kirov ballet of St. Petersburg because their productions are "light and airy". But he uses thicker gouache paints for the Bolshoi because their work stands out "like a circus poster".
    Halliday does not sell his paintings to theatre or dance companies but gives them away freely when they are requested. They appear in theatre programs and exhibitions.
    His compensation is to receive access to the companies as they rehearse.
    "This is the intermediary stage of the painting where the dancers just appear on the stage so they are lit in the stage light and I try to capture the glitter of the light as it captures and connects with the costumes and the dancers."
    Halliday has painted numerous companies over the last 24 years. His extensive archive of paintings includes these images from the Kirov Opera, the Kirov Ballet, the Royal Ballet, the Caracalla Dance Theater of Lebanon, and of course Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet.
    He has also painted with the New York City Ballet, and on the set of the film "Shakespeare in Love".
    Halliday says few other artists have visited London's West End theatre district for long periods of time. His is the only work continuously recording stage productions.
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