HELOISE TOOP - PORTRAIT PAINTER
Tommy
Heloise Toop made a heck of a start to her career. After her years at the Heatherleye School in Chelsea in a training focused on classical and figurative art, Heloise struck portrait gold with a painting chosen by The Mall – surely the apogee of élite galleries.
“Yes it was a great break. Ironcially the portrait was of an old boyfriend . I confess I loathed him by that time so when someone came up and asked “ Is that for sale?” I snapped “ Yep, please take it away’ . Strange how that picture has been a springboard for my career. Now word has spread I paint commissions of all kinds of people “
Heloise and I sit on the friendly oak tables in the Cambridge Univeristy Botanical Gardens. Surrounded by high summer flowers, it is a perfect place to interview an artist whose world is wrapped around with colour. Art is an integral part of Heloise’s life – a garden in full bloom is her own natural habitat.
“ I have always been the ‘arty one’ from early school days’’ she says simply.
“A self portrait, see below is with my characteristic annoyed expression of concentration. This painting sits above the portrait of my sister, Bryony, also an artist. I hold the tip of the brush, as the rest of it continues down in to the other painting below. I wanted to create something to highlight the relationship I have with my little sister/confidante/muse/best friend. I think it sums up the artistic side of our relationship.’
Snapped up unfinished at a show, Heloise and Bryony portrait
Heloise has gone on to exhibit in London, been featured in newspapers and offered her own quirky style to the usually quiet sphere of portrait painting. Her shows often include her many subjects who get to see their fellow sitters and Heloise is not shy of showing the mechanics of creation. Not for her the cloistered studio, below you can see her in a shop window. And there have been busy exhibitions with friends and family to the fore. see below
“ I wanted to give visitors the chance to meet my models in real life, see some of the props I have used in the paintings and have a go at drawing the people I have painted. We had tea and cake, painting in the window, and the models in costume for the day. “
Heloise at her London Show
‘English Rose’ shows a model in serene and peaceful pose’
The more I gaze at Heloise’s portratis , splendiferous in talent and colour, the more I fancy myself in a picture . Her paintings have a modernity you just don’t associate with portraiture. And they are reassuringly a long way from Lucian Freud and even further Francis Bacon, the names we now link to contemporary portraiture You would feel genuinely afraid of an exhibition called Kith and Kin by either of these hard-hitting, hugely celebrated artists. . But that is the title of one of Heloise’s shows.. Is it because she is so young open and devoid of pretension, her works are instantly more accessible? She is half in love with her subjects, they may be children, teachers or public figures but they all appear to radiate a kind of warmth imbued by their creator.
The artist’s father Nick Toop ‘Micro Man’ worked with Clive Sinclair etc and features in the film of that name
Not that Heloise does not like her own way. She is a serious artist not a flatterer
“ I have the ultimate say on how it all looks’ she asserts firmly ‘ I can paint people entirely from life obviously, but usually they like it if I organize a photo- shoot with a wide range of photographs and then they choose out of five I like. Those are the terms.
Her professional work does not prevent her enjoyment of family portraits (below and above)
“My little sister Felicity cannot travel for health reasons, but I always bring her a snow globe for her collection when I go away. Here she is with one.”
I like to encourage subjects to wear just what they like even if that’s circus costumes . Or nothing at all. I have just finishes a picture of Surie the Eurovision song contest winner . She is nude but in a swathe of foliage all around her, she looks so beautiful with her small lovely face.”
Heloise is young but old enough find getting older is an advantage in art. Her work is accessible vibrant and of today. Yet the impulse of the centuries of Western art lives in her with a creativity that continues to develop towards deep maturity. Let’s keep an eye on her.
Portraits cost £700 and take about four weeks. There still may be time for me yet?
Lovely relaxed nude
Isobel and Alison - ‘this has - for me- a wonderfully timeless quality. Could be in any century’ -AG
