Christopher Hogan has painted large scale murals in several 5* resorts around the world including One & Only Reethi Rah Maldives, Anantara Kihavah Villas Maldives, Angsana Velavaru Maldives, Anantara Hua Hin,Thailand and Angsana Laguna Phuket, Thailand.

'Triggerfish' by Christopher Hogan (photo courtesy Anantara Kihavah)

As we all know, Art works have been hung in hotels for decades.

I have read  the tales of down-on-their-luck residents at the Chelsea Hotel in New York offering up their work in exchange for rent.

In this century there is a growing number of ‘ArtHotels’ being built around the world, where not only public spaces but rooms and gardens are themed, painted or designed by artists, or that contain unique collections of not only paintings but sculpture and designer carpets and wall hangings.

Art can add a much-needed Organic Element to a resort or hotel.

Today, hoteliers are thinking even farther outside the square by installing art in the most unexpected of ways and challenging guests to think more deeply about their experience. At Anantara Kihavah Villas in the Maldives, my concept of designing artwork on buggies has come to fruition, but my  Christopher Hogan’s ‘Kihavah Fleet of Fishes’ Collection, with designs exclusive to the resort. Every buggy is an original Christopher Hogan from my Reef Series of paintings which depict the reefs and it’s fishes.

‘Christopher Hogan has affectionately known as the man who paints fish skins’

In recent years, hotels like the Wynn Las Vegas, the Grand Bohemian Hotel in Orlando and the Sagamore in Miami Beach have all displayed extensive collections of art. And the Gramercy Park Hotel, whose total refurbishing by Mr. Schrager debuted in 2006, has so much high-caliber artwork that the Museum of Modern Art once took a tour group there.

“The art is a part of the identity of the hotel,” said Jason Pomeranc, a co-owner of the Thompson LES, “and it integrates into the architecture, design, concept and what we ethereally call the vibe, the intellectual soul of the hotel.”

“If you think about Minimalism and Conceptualism, those artists have been trying to get off the wall for 50 years,” said Glenn Schaeffer, the co-founder, president and chief executive of Fontainebleau Resorts, “and now we’ve got a space for them.”

The Pod Hotel  in New York also features frameless art. J. M. Rizzi painted city scenes and abstract shapes directly on the walls of the lobby, corridors and some rooms.  I have been doing this at resorts in Thailand and the Maldives over the past year, here are a few examples of Christopher Hogan’s original wall murals.

One&Only Reethi Rah Maldives - Original art work by Christopher Hogan

Angsana Laguna Phuket Thailand wall mural designed by Christopher Hogan

The Henry Jones Art Hotel in Tasmania in my native country, Australia is an excellent example. From the hotel’s website, GM he said “we are truly privileged to be involved with the breathtaking transformation of a historically-sensitive site, such as this. In doing so we have created a luxurious and innovative way to engage with not only our cultural heritage but also connect with contemporary culture through modern Tasmanian works of art.

Tiles of Dreams, the newly named wall mural designed by Christopher Hogan

News…….

the winners of the naming of the wall mural designed by “Christopher Hogan” has been announced. Congratulations to fellow Australian’s the Loch family.

Recently completed the design of a 7 metre by 2.5 metre wall mural at Angsana Laguna Phuket, where a young family from Australia, joined by art class and under my direction, painted several tiles for the mural. It is heartwarming to see that they were the winners of the naming of my mural and will forever be part of the wonderful event, hosted by the Angsana Laguna Phuket’s GM Jerry John and David Campion who is Group Director CSR Operations for the Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts.  Congratulations to everyone involved. Another ‘Christopher Hogan‘…….Tropic Series of Paintings.

Chocolate Degustation Menu by Christopher Hogan

Sight   =  Divine Designs by Artist in Residence, myself, Christopher Hogan

Taste   =  Degustation menu by the chefs at One&Only Reethi Rah

Sound =  Delightful music played by magical musician, Glenn Atkin

Smell   =  Delicious Chocolate by master chocolatier Laurent Gerbaud

I was asked to take part in tonight’s ‘Chocolate Degustation Dinner’, an Easter event, which has been heralded as a celebration to ‘uncover the marriage of scent, taste, vision and tune’.

I am part of a star-studded cast of World Recognised Experts in Art, Music, Wine and Fine Food lined up for the event.

All artist’s in residence here at One&Only Reethi Rah Maldives.

For my part, I have Designed and painted Original Works of Art on the menus.  I was inspired by Mark Hehir, the General Manager at the One&Only Reethi Rah, when he talked of mixing chocolate with chilli and as he talked, I started to envisage ‘patterns of my marine theme of “Reef Series” images, floating in chocolate over the page, mixed with the tough, dried, spiciness of hot red chilli’ .  I rushed back to my studio and started to pencil sketch my thoughts and I am very happy with the result, each menu is unique, just as each dish and each song will be tonight.

Mixtures of textures, colour, feel and light emulate from these miniature works of art.  I have used a wonderful pearlised acrylic paint, that I stumbled upon on a recent trip to Taiwan, it is made from crushed Mother of Pearl and I can see the light bouncing from the paper under the soft lights over the degustation dinner. Exciting all the senses.

The performance will not stop there, I will be stimulating the fifth sense, the sense of touch!  I will be encouraging the guests to get up close and personal, as I demonstrate my bold painting style and create on canvas, an art work that will reflect the essence of combining my abstract form of artistic expression with the culinary delights presented during the evening, focusing on the star, CHOCOLATE.

I know that the guests will become involved with the process and have some fun, as I progress with my painting, which I am sure, will stimulate conversation as well as the appetite for the evening ahead.

I will be trying my best to blow the guests away!

Here at One&Only Reethi Rah Maldives

Nora, O&O Reethi Rah’s exuberant Guest Services Manager and her two young nieces joined my art class under the coconut trees and so I took the opportunity to teach them how to paint in the bold colours and patterns of the marine life that they had seen here on the reefs and waters of the Maldives.

On reflection, these three young Russian women paintings bought to my mind a 20th Century female Russian Cubist artist, Liubov Popova and here is a short Art History lesson that I would like to share with you.  Her style is strong and the abstract paintings she produced reduced the cubist style to a basic language of squares and rectangles, and is in a way, similar to the style that I teach my students.  The coloured diagonal shapes suggests movement and also a sense of balance. The modelling of the shapes suggests a light source from outside the frame.

Popova, Liubov (1889–1924)

Talented Russian artist of the first decades of the 20th century who absorbed the currents of Impressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Suprematism, and Constructivism, and turned her energies to practical forms of art to further the goals of the Bolshevik Revolution. Name variations: Lyubov. Pronunciation: Lyoo-BOFF Pa-POE-va. Born on April 24, 1889, in the village of Ivanovskoe, near Moscow; died of scarlet fever in Moscow on May 25, 1924; daughter of Sergei Maksimovich Popov (a Moscow merchant) and Liubov Vasilievna Zubova Popova; attended secondary schools in Yalta and Moscow, 1902–06; studied art formally under private teachers, 1907–11; married Boris Nikolaevich von Eding (a Russian art historian); children: one son.

Moved to Moscow (1906); first visited Italy (1910); toured ancient Russian cities (1911); set up studio in Moscow (1912); visited Paris and rendered first purely Cubist painting (1913); visited Paris once more, outbreak of World War I, exhibited painting in Moscow (1914); began association with Malevich (1915); exhibited her first non-objective paintings (1916); death of her husband, contracted typhus, joined Council of Masters (1919); taught at Higher State Artistic and Technical Studio (1920); shifted interests to utilitarian art (stage design, textiles, 1921); posthumous exhibit of her work in Moscow (1924–25).

Selected works:

Still Life: Milk Pitcher; Plein Air (Costakis Collection, Athens, 1908); Italian Still Life (Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow, 1914); Birsk (Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1916); Painterly Architectonics (Tretiatkov Gallery, Moscow, 1916–17); Work uniform design for Actor No. 5 (Private Collection Moscow, 1921); set design for The Magnanimous Cuckold (Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow, 1922).

Liubov Popova played a major role within the lively Russian artistic world of the early 20th century. It was an artistic scene in which competing groups sometimes operated under their own dynamics and sometimes responded to intense political experiences. She joined those who made the passage to Cubism and abstract art, and she entered the group of artists who sought to serve the ideals of the Bolshevik Revolution. Nonetheless, in the view of leading critics, her work retained a notable originality. In a 1962 pioneering study of Russian avant-garde art, Camilla Grayclaimed: “After Tatlin and Male-vich, Popova was the most outstanding painter of the post-1914 abstract school in Russia.” Art historian Magdalena Dambrowski cited “the high quality of her achievement,” calling her “a versatile, innovative artist who drew on diverse influences … and made them the basis of her own distinctive means of expression.” Popova “was tall,” wrote her friend and fellow artist Vera Mukhina ; “she had a good figure, marvelous eyes and luxuriant hair.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyubov_Popova

It does not need a studio space with a floor and ceiling.

It just needs inspired people with a will to paint and guidance from an experienced artist to bring out their best.  That is what I am achieving here with my  ’One&Only Reethi Rah – Art Therapy’  program.

Keep tuned for my new ‘How to Paint like Christopher Hogan’ promotion that I will be posting up on this blog and come along with me and enjoy, from where ever you are, my instruction on painting your own masterpiece in 2 hours.  In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these pictures of my recent classes.

Magical One&Only Reethi Rah Resort

Magical Moments

The weather here in the Maldives has been magical allowing me to conduct my art classes for guests out under the sunny sky beneath the swaying palm trees, now that’s magical.

Here are some interesting guests paintings from my recent classes and I hope you enjoy!  These paintings are the product of a 2 hour art class with me and most of my students quickly grasp my concept of how to paint contemporary abstract paintings and a very short time.  That is the secret of my art.

My Painting class is not just about fish!

This is a story about Toucans in the Maldives.

A Russian guest decided that she would like to paint a tropical scene, instead of coral reefs or fishes and so she worked diligently on her painting in her the first class with me and produced a good little painting of palm fronds.

Next day she took another class and painted some more tropical plants and a lovely purple helicon, similar to some of my own ‘Helicon Series’ of paintings.  She was referring to a photo on her on her mobile phone for inspiration.

The next day, there she was again, another art class and this time she wanted to learn how to paint a Toucan, which she said she had a photo of one on her mobile phone, so off we went into the land of tropical birds and plants, a little different from the images of coral reefs and fishes that I often encourage my students to paint.  She had three good little paintings by now.

Then I was surprised to see her for a 4th day running, skipping over to my class to paint another painting.  I said to her ‘what are you going to paint to day’ and she replied….’my husband’s swimsuit’…oh, ‘that’s a bit unusual’….and she produced her husband with his swimsuit to show me where she had been getting her inspiration…..

the saying ‘ Art is in the eye of the beholder’ applies to this subject matter and both my student and her husband are very happy with the result and so am I.

Happy guests……that is my aim…..and this delightful young lady is the epitome of why I like teaching at the One & Only Reethi Rah!

Here are some interesting facts about Toucans that live in trees not on shorts.

Toucan Facts
Toucan is a brightly colored bird commonly found in the rain forests of the Central and South America. Toucans are birds with variety in color as well as the size. Bright in color having red, blue, yellow, orange etc. and the size varies from 14 to 30 inches. These birds have a distinguished feature by having a long bill that is approximately half the size of their body. This bill is not very sharp or strong but is made of a tough material and helps the bird in getting food from inside the holes of the trees and help them protect themselves. The birds live on trees in a group of six to seven birds. They have big claws that help them balance on the trees, the two claws are in the front and two at the back. There colorful wings help them ambush with the leaves and the fruits. They are quite lazy birds and do not fly high or far away, they stay in the jungles and enjoy the fruits of the trees on which they live.Toucans are forgivers as well as omnivores. Though they mainly eat fruits but also feed upon insects, rodents, reptiles, eggs and chicks of the other birds. Toucans are mostly hunted by the humans, big birds, jaguars and wild cats. There are almost 37 species of toucans. They generally stay alone or with a mate. The female gives 3 to 4 eggs at a time and both together incubate the eggs. The young ones have very small bill which takes few months to develop properly. They are very noisy and make loud sounds. When it comes to rest they roll themselves and sleep in the holes of the trees. The facts show that Toco Toucan with orange yellowish colored bill about 7.5 inches is the largest toucan and the smallest species is the Aracar Toucanet. Toucans are related to woodpeckers.