Artweeks with Alex Long

As part of Oxfordshire Artweeks, the city’s largest arts festival, our Burford Gallery is hosting a select number of our artists across the week, from Monday 6th May. We are delighted to be joined by four of our artists throughout the week, demonstrating how they bring their impressive pieces to life, whilst shedding light upon their practice and answering any questions you may have about their work.

On Tuesday 7th and Wednesday 8th May join us in store to meet artist, Alex Long between 10am and 4pm who will be joining us to demonstrate, painting a seasonal still life, rich in springtime blooms.

Alex Long is an oil painter based in Oxfordshire. Working primarily ‘en plein air’, it is Long’s belief that a deep, nurtured understanding of the past is required in order to pursue the future of figurative art. From closely studying Old Masters paintings and researching their techniques, challenges and historical contexts, to the analysis of contemporary British, Italian and Russian neo-impressionists, this research has enabled him to produce a multitude of quick and lively compositions that are largely inspired by the classical representation of the natural world and the changing of the seasons.

Alex explored painting for the very first time in 2019, after initially studying Chemistry and having worked as a Scientist in the Biotechnology sector for the previous 13 years. After spending a year training at a classical arts academy in Florence, Long returned to his hometown in 2023 to continue his exploration as a full-time painter, with his recent body of work focussing on oil paintings of Tuscany and wider Italy, as well as new perspectives of his local area within the Cotswolds. Creating work that exudes life and organic beauty, Long has exhibited in numerous group show including the Royal Institute of Oil Painters.