RAINBIRD FINE ART

• About
• Artists Wishing To Be Featured

About

The proprietors of Rainbird Fine Art are Rick Goodale and Swedish born Ann-Kathrin Durge (see below). They have been in the art business in various forms for over thirty five years having previously lived and worked in Amsterdam , Stockholm , Sydney and Los Angeles. After returning to London they opened a contemporary art gallery at Clerkenwell in the City of London supplying original art to the city's private and corporate art collectors and to many others throughout the world via the Rainbird Fine Art website. As they began to feel uncomfortable about passing on the ever increasing overheads of running a central London gallery to clients, they decided to close the gallery and operate instead as independent art consultants, brokers and dealers. They also have extensive art licensing experience and often arrange for the commercial reproduction of contemporary art for such uses as advertising, publishing, jigsaw puzzles and cards etc. Using their past wide experience and contacts, they now devote much of their time to sourcing high quality, original contemporary art from emerging and established artists throughout the UK and overseas. For clients and collectors Rainbird Fine Art offer a personal, bespoke service operating mainly in London and the Home Counties, which can include taking art to clients homes or offices for viewing and project managing commissions for site specific requirements. See 'Buying Art From Rainbird' for full information on our services and note that we ship art throughout the UK and internationally.

Rick Goodale. After a brief stab at 'real art' at St Martins School of Art in London Rick's life in art started as a illustrator in the late 60's and early 70's. He worked at the Sunday Times, Penguin Books and at numerous other companies during this period and developed into a fully fledged 'airbrush' illustrator. Later he worked at a well known London graphic studio of the time 'Ink Studios' which had numerous high profile clients such as 'Apple' (the books 'Beatles Illustrated Lyrics' 1 & 2 were produced here), 'The Playboy Club' and 'The Incredible Department Store'. Record covers were also produced at Ink for artistes such as Elton John, The Small Faces, Cream etc. together with graphics for many stores and restaurants of the period. One such was the original 'Hard Rock Café' in Piccadilly, London (whose founders Peter Morton and Isacc Tigrett had previously opened London's first real American hamburger restaurant 'The Great American Disaster' in Fulham Road) and the Hard Rock logo you see still used today was designed at Ink - the infamous poster for Andy Warhol's film 'Chelsea Girls' was also designed there. After this he lived and worked freelance at various overseas locations supplying illustration to many of the world's top advertising agencies. On his return to the UK he founded 'Artbank' as the world's first dedicated stock illustration library which later went on to also represent international illustrators to advertising agencies and design groups throughout Europe. During this period many clients started buying the original art produced for these commercial projects and, as the business evolved and changed owing to the Internet and other factors, he and Ann-Kathrin Durgé opened a contemporary art gallery at Clerkenwell in the City of London. After trading for ten years they closed the gallery in 2008.

Ann-Kathrin Durge. If the unusual surname 'Durgé' (pronounced 'dir-year') may be familiar to some readers it will probably be because they are Swedish. Ann-Kathrin's grandfather Ivar Durgé opened Sweden's very first driving school in Goteborg in 1919 and this name can still be seen as you drive down Goteborg's main street ' Avenyn'. Ann-Kathrin Durgé was curator and 'front of house' at the Clerkenwell gallery for ten years and developed a keen knowledge of the type of art that collectors and clients may like. Her experience of running the gallery and dealing with so many artists and clients has left her with a highly objective view on the type of art we may be able to find buyers for and what art may suit domestic or corporate environments or the art licensing companies we source imagery for.
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Artists Wishing To Be Featured.

Firstly please do not telephone us as we cannot discuss or make any decisions until we have actually seen the work so always use the 'Submission Guidelines' procedure below in the first instance. Rainbird Fine Art are always interested in viewing the work of full time artists who are producing high quality, interesting original work (not prints) on good quality materials and may like to have it promoted to our collectors and clients. Please note: We are art dealers and brokers and our business is about sourcing and presenting art to our collectors and clients. We do not represent artists. We often also work with galleries and therefore there should be no conflict of interests with galleries that artists may exhibit with, but it is up to the artist to check. Like most established art dealers we would not want to spend time, effort and money on promoting artists work if they may undermine our efforts via their own websites or by including their work on the free and unselective 'art' websites that proliferate on the Internet these days. Artists practising today should be aware that art buyers and art dealers are now becoming more conscious about whether they act in a manner that indicates they are serious about their reputation and most importantly for buyers, retaining the future value of their product. This will always include a basic self respect regarding the company they allow their art to keep and a certain exclusivity.

Following are our Submission Guidelines on how to approach us. As we receive so much spam and unsolicited approaches we only respond to submissions that are sent by email and as requested. Please do not submit Jpeg's unless you have good quality originals available for viewing should we wish to see them. As general guidance regarding painting submissions we prefer oil or acrylic on canvas (not watercolours or any medium that needs to go behind glass) of a reasonable size and one fully developed, preferably figurative or a representational style, no abstracts at this time please.

Artists are asked to follow this 3 point submission procedure:
1. Email up to 6 (no more) low res. Jpeg's (Jpeg's only please) of what you consider to be your best most recent original work (no prints please).

2. Include sizes of the works and mediums used/technique in the email or as a seperate 'Word' document. Also please include your website URL and an idea of your prices.

3. A Biography or/and a basic 'Artist's Statement' which should include your geographic location and year of birth as an email or as a 'Word' document attachment.

This information should be emailed to us with 'HAVE READ SUBMISSION GUIDELINES' in the 'Subject' field. NOTE: Our spam filter may reject and we cannot open or respond to any email inquiries unless they are submitted as requested with the full information required so that we know you have read our Submission Guidelines. All initial approaches to us should be by email with attachments as described above. We will respond as soon as possible but please allow at least 14 days. If we feel the work may be of interest (and please understand here that we view work objectively for if we can find buyers, not if we like it or not) we will ask you to visit us or we may visit you (if in the UK or Western Europe) to see examples of your original work. If you have a query or require further information, please email but clearly state in the 'Subject field: 'HAVE READ SUBMISSION GUIDELINES' so we know that you have read and are fully aware of our Submission Guidelines. See 'CONTACT' for email address.