Artist Spotlight: Timothy Rees

My name is Timothy Rees – I’m an artist and father of 3 living in Scottsdale, Arizona.  While I have had no formal training, an intense study of literature and paintings of the past, combined with working from live models almost daily, gave me the skills to enjoy a life as a painter.  Over the years I have been fortunate enough to run my own atelier, teach workshops around the world, and place in competitions such as the Portrait Society of America and the Art Renewal Center.

Although I paint all subjects, I mostly gravitate toward portrait and figurative work.  I am intensely drawn to naturalist paintings of the past, yet I am constantly interested in pushing the boundaries of paint application and abstraction.  As such, my work tends to fall into two different collections.  The first are paintings of my children and models, often outdoors, invoking romantic narratives and interesting light and atmospheric effects.  The other paintings are a dynamic fusion of abstraction and realism, in which I foil delicately rendered figures with bold paint application. Each of these allows me to satisfy my artistic cravings, either by commenting on our shared human experience or by pushing the medium of paint in new directions.

I have a few different favorite Rosemary brushes, but each for different reasons.  The first is the Extra Long Comber.  I capitalize on their irregularity to create textural variety in landscape, fabric, and hair.  They also allow me to delicately soften wet strokes of paint without upsetting the marks. Combers are such a versatile brush when painting quickly, that they are a staple in my studio.

The Master’s Choice is my go to for the meat and potatoes of my paint application.  They are firm enough to pick up paint directly from the tube and lay it on the canvas, either relatively smooth or with impasto.  The natural wear of them also makes them excellent for utilizing paint more thickly than the combers while creating texture.  I also use them to soften paint that has become a bit more firm or tacky.

My other favorite brushes are the Round Sables.  I love to use large round sables to block in thicker paint (for example, the initial color of a portrait) because they make the paint go on silky smooth and create a lovely fusion of edges. Toward the end of the portrait, I use smaller round sables for little accents.  These last tiny marks really help a painting feel finished.

Find Timothy’s Instagram here and his set here.