biography


I see painting as a contemplation of the world around me. The more I paint and observe, the more I am amazed by the beautiful complexities of Nature. From the seemingly modest - the silver scales of a fish - to the turn of a head and the radiance of living breathing skin, I try to capture and bring this wonder into my pictures.

Gabriela Denny Segura FRSA was born in Spain in 1972 and has lived and travelled extensively around Europe and America. She was classically trained as a painter in Florence at the Cecil Graves Studio in 1990/1 and subsequently at the Charles H. Cecil Studio from 1999 to 2002. 

Following a degree in Art History at the University of Edinburgh, she worked full time with John Ward CBE RA in his studio near Canterbury from 1995 to 1997 as his assistant and apprentice.  During the summers of 1999 and 2000, she assisted John Ward and Gordon Davies with the Millennium Mural at Challock Church, near Canterbury.

In 2000 she was selected as a Queen Elizabeth Trust Scholar by the Royal Warrant Holders Association and was awarded a scholarship by the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation in Canada.  These awards permitted her to return to Florence to specialise in Portraiture.

She currently lives in London and as well as painting has been teaching at the London Atelier of Realist Art.

exhibitions
2010     "Artists for Africa"
Special Charity Exhibition at the Oakham Gallery, London, in aid of
The Friends of Africa Foundation
2009    

Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust
Scholars Exhibition
GTC, London

2009     Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Mall Galleries, London
2008    

ING Discerning Eye Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
Selected by Bob Benton and Robin Morgan

2008     "Still-Life", Campden Gallery, Chipping Campden
2008     "Gallimaufray"and "Still-Life", Highgate Fine Art, London
2007     ING Discerning Eye Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
Selected by Charles Saumarez Smith
2005    

"Gabriela Denny Segura, Scott Pohlschmidt and Ann Witheridge", Shepherd Market, London W1

2003     "Ann Witheridge and Gabriela Denny Segura", Shepherd Market, London W1.
2001     Charles H. Cecil 10th Anniversary Show,
Paul Mitchell Gallery, London
 
commission
2004    

Dr. Donald Rees, Warden, Hugh Stuart Hall, University of Nottingham

2000     Rt. Rev. Crispian Holllis, Bishop of Portsmouth
1999, 2000     Millenium Mural, Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian, Challock, near Canterbury, assistant to John Ward CBE and Gordon Davies
awards
2002
   
Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant
2000     Queen Elizabeth Scholarship awarded by the
Royal Warrant Holders Association
2000     Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant
2000     Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts
       
training
2000-2002     Charles H. Cecil Studio, Florence


1995- 1997     Assistant and Apprentice to John Ward CBE
1994, 1995     Charles H. Cecil Studio, Florence
st jerome, 1991,
charcoal on paper
70x50cm
1990- 1991     Studio Cecil-Graves, Florence

 

  
The teaching method employed at the studios in Florence is based on Nineteenth Century Atelier Practices of drawing casts and Nudes. Students are taught to depict the subject to scale using the sight-size method, whereby the drawing is set up so that the subject appears the same size as the rendition when viewed together from a specific distance. This technique is also used in painting casts, nudes and portraits but is seldom taught in art school today.


 
nude, 2001
charcoal on paper
48x36cm

education

1991-1995



    

History of Art, MA (Hons), University of Edinburgh

1981-1990     Bedales School
miss rita ogando posing