Bridgeman Images are excited to introduce a new exceptional collection of watercolour paintings by Alexander Creswell.
Explore Alexander Creswell's collection.
Alexander Creswell was born in 1957 in Helsinki, Finland. Throughout his career he has been based at his home in the Surrey Hills, UK. Largely self-taught, Creswell has been internationally recognized. His unique and elegant watercolour paintings with their subtle tones and powerful use of light, convey a sense of admiration and appreciation from his audience.
Having experimented with several different genres, Creswell’s architectural paintings are the most recognisable. Traveling extensively, his paintings showcase a deep appreciation for architecture and the spirit of the place. King Charles III, then the Prince of Wales, spoke admirably about Creswell’s distinct talent:
“He has an ability unique among his generation to capture both the appearance and the atmosphere of a building.”
With his travels taking him across the globe, Creswells' work covers a huge variety of places. From the bridges of New York; across Italy and along the Silk Road; through the Holy Land; to the Tsar's palaces in St. Petersburg and ancient temples in China. Creswell has also extensively painted magnificent yachts as they battle with the wind in some of the world's greatest regattas. Creswell carries his mastery of light and colour throughout these paintings.
Creswell has successfully reinvented the medium of watercolor, bringing a vibrant and dynamic new liveliness to his work. By constantly experimenting with this medium, he continued to create unique and captivating pieces of artwork, never seen before. Creswell recalls that this medium attracted him as it was so underestimated and unfashionable:
“Perversely, watercolour appealed for another reason – having been completely out of fashion in the twentieth century, rejected and forgotten, watercolour was dismissed as a medium only suitable for Victorian ladies, not a medium for the ‘consideration of great art.”
Most striking of his works are the ‘grand scale’ watercolours, which are the largest of their kind ever created. Alexander Creswell’s larger scale paintings demonstrate his adeptness and experimentation, where he chose to work against the traditional limitations of the medium. The first exhibition of ‘grand scale’ paintings happened in 2006 in New York, showcasing this exceptional triumph of technique. Despite the challenge of such a fast-drying medium as watercolour, Creswell has preserved the subtleties of light and the dynamism of his style. The ability to paint at speed, necessary for work on such a large scale, allows him to be much freer with his artwork. Creswell comments on using the difficulties of painting in watercolour on a grand scale:
“The challenge is no longer where to find paper on that scale, the challenge is not spoiling it once you have it.”
The narrow view of watercolour as a medium has been reinvented by Alexander Creswell, who demonstrates its vastness and magnificence. He has exhibited at galleries and museums globally, including in New York, London, Dubai and Hong Kong. He has also been commissioned by several notable galleries and collections, including The Royal Collection and the Forbes Collection in New York. Creswell's delicate handsmanship and complex understanding of place has been widely sought after, with Westminster Abbey commissioning the first collection and exhibition of paintings to be made since the Abbey’s foundation.
Bridgeman Images is honoured to partner with Alexander Creswell to celebrate his exceptional artistic talent. We are excited to present an exclusive collection of his works, available only through Bridgeman Images and accessible upon request. Contact us directly to discover more about Creswell’s broad and diverse collection of artworks.
Explore Alexander Creswell's collection.
