I can remember, as a child, hearing the news of the death of British cyclist, Tommy Simpson, on the sun-baked slopes of Mont Ventoux during the 1967 Tour de France. While at the recent launch of Paul Smith's 531 cycling collection I saw a superb painting by Karl Kopinski portraying the suffering of Simpson just before he died. Look at Simpson's eyes in the image below.
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| Tommy Simpson - © Karl Kopinski |
I met Karl Kopinski and, fascinated by his work, had the chance to ask him a few questions about himself and his art. Here is what he told me:
'I was very interested in drawing from an early age but didn't manage to land any paid work until my mid twenties. I attended art college in Sunderland but became very disillusioned with their lack of interest in figurative painting, only just scraping through to get a third in fine art.
After a while I managed to get a little bit of work drawing comic books I then went on to work in the sci-fi and fantasy illustration field at a local company's studio called Games Workshop. After 7 years I left to go freelance in order to look for a more diverse range of clients. In that period I've worked for many different companies and managed to sell paintings to people like Peter Jackson and Sir Paul Smith.
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| Fausto Coppi © Karl Kopinski |
I've worked for people like Ubisoft on their Assassins creed black flag game, I've had private portrait commissions from several people incuding Keith Levett the livery tailor of Henry Poole, Savile Row, who paid me by making me a suit! I painted a small portrait of Sir Paul Smith which was used in the book released to coincide with his exhibition at the London Design Museum recently.
I have also completed a pair of large scale paintings, commemorating the battle of Waterloo, to help raise money for the renovation of part of the battle field. These were bought by the film director Peter Jackson and are now part of his private collection. My favourite medium is oils, I also work digitally for some clients and also use watercolours from time to time.
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| Jacques Anquetil © Karl Kopinski |
The past heroes of cycling in the "On the Rivet" series were triggered by my now obsessive love of cycling, I do a fairly large number of miles per week on my road bike, and my love of portraiture, I wanted to do a series which focused on the romance, pain and heroism of the tales of riders from the golden era of cycling.
People can contact me via my On the Rivet Facebook page also via my Behance portfolio and directly by my email karlkopinski@msn.com. I'm available for private commissions and will be updating my sites as I complete more paintings.'
Many thanks to Karl Kopinski for sharing these wonderful paintings - I'd love a few of these on my walls! Read about Paul Smith's 531 cycle range here.
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| Roger Rivière © Karl Kopinski |
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