Ray Rankine
'Engine' 60 x 60 cms Acrylic on board
'Sunstroke' *sold*
'Creek' *Sold*
' Arc-1' 92 x 72 cms Oil on canvas
'Walking the Dog' 72 x 53 cms Oil on canvas
'Down Under' 46 x 46 cms Oil on canvas
'Geography' 46 x 46 cms Oil on canvas
'Beyond Reasonable Doubt' 40 x 50 cms Charcoal/pastel/pencil
'Unbelievers 3' 57 x 37.5 cms Watercolour
'Beach Study' *Sold*
Raymond Rankine studied Fine Art at the Ulster College of Art and Design, Belfast - now a faculty of the University of Ulster - and taught for some years in both Northern Ireland and London.
Design work was concerned with the supervision of layout drawing and background painting, working on productions such as ‘When the Wind Blows’, ‘The Wind in The Willows’, ‘The Tales of Beatrix Potter’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’.
As well as major London animation studios, work has been produced for Walt Disney Films, Warner Bros Feature Animation, Amblimation (Universal Pictures, now Dreamworks), Illuminated Films, and BBC Television.
This wide experience included involvement in the EMMY award winning production of ‘The Willows in Winter’ (TVC, London) and, as Senior Digital Matte Painter for Cinesite, London, a contribution to the EMMY nominated Hallmark Entertainment production of ‘Cleopatra’.
More recently, a position as a Senior Concept Artist for EA Games required the creation of concept designs for the digital environments used in the Harry Potter series of games, including The Goblet of Fire, The Order of The Phoenix and The Half Blood Prince.
Working practice
Ray Rankine’s painting practice employs watercolour, oil and acrylic along with pastel and other drawing materials.
Photography is also an important part of working practice both as an end in itself and sometimes as a kick starter for an image or a composition.
The paintings are usually observation based with starting points such as the sea and coast, building and industrial sites, suburban landscapes, gardens and the clutter of everyday life. Work proceeds from these starting points by way of drawings and watercolour sketches. Small watercolour paintings which start as freeing up exercises often become the spark for a larger work.
Recent work has also been influenced by the way images are broken up, framed, duplicated etc by their surroundings. Obvious examples
are views through door and window frames. Others include old photo albums with multiple images often of varying sizes and the shapes left behind after removing taped down paintings from a board.
Finished paintings evolve at different speeds as images are combined, layered and rediscovered, often becoming completely transformed but retaining traces of the original inspiration in the new form.
On-going activities, apart from painting and photography, has included preparatory work on a documentary film (‘Warrior’, Iolaire Pictures) and on a planned public art project leading up to the 2012 Olympic games. The project was awarded a research and development bursary from the Western Wedge.
COLLECTIONS
Paintings are in collections in UK, France and USA and have been exhibited at the venues and galleries below.
The Cleveland Drawing Biennale
The Institute of Education, London University
Camden Arts Centre
Momentum 1 - 4
Menier Chocolate Factory Gallery, London
R B A annual exhibition 2010
The Mall Galleries, London
The Pastel Society annual exhibition 2009 and 2010
The Mall Galleries, London
Fovea Gallery, Harrow
Solo Exhibition 2007
21st Century Watercolours: Bankside gallery, London 2009
‘Reveal’ at the Beldam Gallery, Brunel University 2009