Welcome to the ICHOR Art E-Zine.
This section is updated regularly with articles related to the ICHOR Gallery and to Art in general. We hope it to be a useful resource for both fans of the art featured on The ICHOR Gallery and to all art enthusiasts.

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 • ICHOR Articles

The Battle Scene - Anthony Christian tells us about his first masterpiece "The Battle Scene", a copy of Phillip Wouwermans' "Cavalry Battle". Christian began this piece in London's National Gallery when he was only 10 years old, making him the youngest person ever given permission to copy there...

(21/07/01) 

The Ichor Collection - Anthony Christian tells us about "The ICHOR Collection", a selection of the very best of his art accumulated over that last 30 years which currently includes over 200 pieces. Now even more spectacular with the relatively recent addition of Marian Fanny Christian's art. Christian explains the nature and purpose of this amazing collection...

(09/11/05) 

Marian Fanny Christian - Part One - Art is full of unpredictable miracles and that is what happened in the case of Marian Fannon-Christian, known as the artist Fanny.

(28/06/06) 

Marian Fanny Christian - Part Two - It is her sense of balance that amazes me; all of her drawings, no matter what she choses to draw, have this wonderful sense of balance, she has a truly extraordinary eye, and is able to do things with an almost childish ease that people who study for years are still unable to achieve.

(28/06/06) 

Marian Fanny Christian - Part Three - I see her in historical terms as one of the greatest female draughtsmen ever; as an artist I am proud to know her, as much as the man is proud and happy to be married to her. I am sure after reading this history and seeing these quite unique and exciting drawings, you will understand yourself exactly why I feel thus towards them.

(28/06/06) 

The Ichor Foundation - Beauty is like a drug to me, it has been since I was a child. But as I grew up, I discovered that Beauty has more levels and aspects than just the way things might look. So in 1994 I created The Ichor Foundation, a charitable organisation for the promotion of Beauty on all levels, and it is funded entirely from the sale of our work.

(15/07/06) 

Ichor Farms and Services - Our planet can survive in a form that supports our existence only as a global garden. It is this indisputable fact that fuels our efforts at Ichor to establish a self-sustaining microcosm of this planetary need. We are striving to retrieve the sacred meaning that the art of agriculture was to the Ancients. We believe it is important not just for the health of the larger environment but also vital to our individual health and well-being.

(15/07/06) 

Self Portrait To Salvador Dali - Another extract from the book 'Anthony Christian' telling us the story behind Anthony Christian's 'Self Portrait To Salvador Dali' including the translated poem originally written in mirror-script and an account of Christian's meeting with Dali.

(13/11/05) 

Self Portrait, Milan - Extract from the book 'Anthony Christian' about the drawing 'Self Portrait, Milan' including the translated poem originally written in mirror-script.

(13/11/05) 

Meetings With A Remarkable Man - Renowned author, Reggie Oliver, first met Anthony Christian at a young age and was deeply touched by the relationship that followed. Now, forty years later, he refelects upon those times and offers fascinating insight into Anthony Christian the man.

(22/11/05) 

Hammer Galleries Catalogue - 1986 - Introduction from Anthony Christian's Hammer Galleries catalogue written by esteemed New York art critic Ronny H. Cohen.

(10/12/05) 

The Leather-Bound Scrapbooks - Anthony Christian's amazing scrapbooks. Every newspaper article, letters from all over the world, photos, every bus/coach/train and plane tickets, unusual shopping bags! If they stopped by the roadside for a coffee, into the scrapbooks would go the little receipt. These books are a priceless record of a whole era and the unique life of this fascinating artist.

(13/05/06) 

Excerpts From God's Brush

History of God's Brush - This beautifully written autobiography tells of Anthony Christian's early life, of a child's determination to pursue his art. It is a touching, revealing and riveting story of a boy who grew to become one of the great Artists of our time.

(15/07/06) 

Excerpt One - God's Brush Vol.1 - "The so-called world of art appeared to me like a house of cards built by Jokers that consisted mainly of Kings and Queens, who were the financial backers of the whole scheme."

(27/11/05) 

 • Genres of Art

Old Masters of the Nude - From Titian to Bouguereau, Anthony Christian tells us of the Major Artists who have contributed to The Nude over the last 500 years and have led it to be one of the most fascinating genres of Art. We learn how these artists cunningly evaded Censorship and how they survived the tyranny of the church who would rather have them tortured or killed for creating such images.

(21/06/06) 

The Nude in Art - Most artists loathed the binding chains of censorship, a power held by the church since the beginnings of Christianity that included a period in which Art was controlled completely by the Inquisition. However, it wasn’t long before nudes started to appear that escaped the shackles of convention and dared to contain a sexual element.

(18/06/06) 

The Nude in Art - Part Two - The Nude - especially the sensual, voluptuous and provocative Female Nude - is probably the most popular subject in the history of painting, inspiring artists for centuries. Although photography has caused the modern eye to see the nude as little more than a pin-up, I still see it as the most marvellous vehicle of expression out of all the other genres.

(18/06/06) 

The Nude in Art - Part Three - The Renaissance - In spite of Italy being the very heart of the doctrines that were causing the inhibitions imposed on the nude during the Renaissance, their wonderful weather was a far greater incentive for people to throw off their clothes than the fear of the reprisals for doing so, and that was reflected in art!

(20/06/06) 

The Nude in Art - Part Four - The Nude is something for us to gaze upon, either with admiration or repulsion, but whichever it is we probably look at the nude figure with more complex attitudes influencing our opinion of it than we might look at any other subject in Art.

(23/06/06) 

The Nude in Art - Part Five - I have been able to show you one or two examples of my own Nudes that were influenced by various Masters I was writing about. However, some of my favourite studies that I have achieved thus far I think fit in with the principles and concepts of this article to the point where I should like to show them here.

(24/06/06) 

Erotic Art - "In fact, the first thing that would amaze any student about to embark on a study of Erotic Art, is the sheer quantity of what has been produced; then surely he would be further amazed that so many people had worked so hard to keep it more or less unknown..."

(09/11/05) 

Surrealism - First of all let me say that my favourite Surrealist will always be Hieronymus Bosch. I would put Dali second on my list, with various others following closely on his heels, including Claude Verlinde. But in the end I would also say that Surrealism is my favourite genre in Art.

(04/05/06) 

Still Life Painting - Introduction - Still-life painting is the fascination artists have with inanimate objects which, for whatever reason, touches them enough to make them wish to communicate or express their feelings towards these objects and share those feelings with the viewer. I have often looked at things ranging from incredible fruits to elaborate swaths of lace and responded to them with amazed admiration, exclaiming "Look at that!" ...

(09/05/06) 

Still Life Painting - Part Two - Still-life painting covers all sorts of lovely fruits and veggies and not so organically living objects, pots and pans and what have you, and even musical or scientific instruments. The genre of Still-life could be divided up into several categories, according to their basic subject matter. For me it can be divided up into only three main categories ...

(11/05/06) 

Still Life Painting - Part Three - Caravaggio is an artist who actually fits into two of the categories of Still-Life that I mentioned in Part Two of this series, and influenced many of my Still Lifes over the years. Jan Vermeer also had great influence on my work.

(16/05/06) 

Still Life Painting - Part Four - I believe that there is no point in simply painting things that have been painted countless times before, and often quite brilliantly, and so I was always looking for new ways of “seeing.” I discovered in India that in Asia, Art is thought of very much as a form of worship and that led me to creating the “Worship Series.”

(24/05/06) 

Still Life Painting - Part Five - One of the wonderful things about each genre is the number of ways they can be approached. Let’s look at the “monumental” approach, where the subject of the still life is really in your face. The greatest example of this is the famous Rembrandt “The Flayed Ox.”

(25/05/06) 

Still Life Painting - Part Six - When one talks about having been influenced by another artist, it means that his work was seen and appreciated, and then one did something with that inspiration in mind. But what also happens is that an artist paints something purely from his own inspiration, and then years later discovers a work with similarities, even though he had never been aware of them when painting his own work.

(01/06/06) 

Modern Art - "It ain't art, it's a puddle!" This is a letter written to "The Times" by Anthony Christian in February, 1999. It clearly shows his views towards "Modern Art."

(12/11/05) 

 • Old Masters

Gustave Courbet - We are starting here a series of quite short biographies of the artists who have most influenced the Christians, or had lives that share a surprising number of similarities. Starting with Anthony, as his influences are easier to pin down, we shall start this series with Gustave Courbet...1819 - 1877.

(13/04/06) 

Peter Paul Rubens - Drawings - Since his genius was so manifold, and his influences on me were in the plural, it might be necessary to write more than one article on him, both to avoid the risk of confusing the reader with too much information in one go, and to explain the connection each subject has with my own work. We will start with Drawing.

(18/04/06) 

Peter Paul Rubens - Paintings - As with his drawing, Rubens' interests in painting covered several subjects. Although he is most known for his nudes, he was also a superb portraitist and painted sublime landscapes.

(19/04/06) 

Rembrandt - As I have mentioned, Courbet was known as the grandfather of Impressionism, and Manet the father. Turner was also given that title, "Father of Impressionism" but in a way they're all wrong. If they were right, then Rembrandt might well be called the great grandfather of Impressionism - but he was far more than that; Rembrandt was the first Impressionist.

(23/04/06) 

Leonardo Da Vinci - Leonardo has probably had more influence on people than any other artist; but the reason for that is not just because he was one of the greatest artists who ever lived, he was also a great architect and engineer, a botanist, a biologist and a scientist in just about every possible branch of science, as well as a Master Daughtsman.

(28/04/06) 

Hieronymus Bosch - Salvador Dali became so famous that the layman could be forgiven for associating his name with Surrealism to the point where it is assumed he invented the genre. He didn't, but Hieronymus Bosch did, well over 400 years before Dali was even born.

(04/05/06)