Hugo Grenville was born in 1958. Although he first exhibited in London at the Chelsea Arts Society at the age of 15, it took him another 14 years to become a full time painter. After leaving school he travelled the Hippy Trail to India, ran out of money, joined the Coldstream Guards and served as an officer in Northern Ireland, West Africa, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) during the Civil War, and finally as an Aide-de-Camp to C-in-C British Army of the Rhine, during which time he painted whenever possible, and studied part-time at Chelsea School of Art and Heatherley’s.
Working first in advertising and then as an art dealer, he finally submitted to the need to paint full time in 1989. Since then he has held 14 One Man Shows (including 8 with Messum’s in Cork St and recently with Wally Findlay International in New York and Palm Beach), has painted portraits of leading figures including the late Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Runcie and the counter-tenor Michael Chance in the role of Orpheus at the ENO, has been an Official War Artist in Bosnia, writes regularly for The Artist magazine, and lectures in London and at his summer school on Colour and Twentieth Century Painting.
During the past 20 years he has exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists, Royal Institute of Painters in Oil, Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour, The Chelsea Arts Club and numerous other galleries including Wally Findlay in Los Angeles, Barcelona, Palm Beach and New York.
Work is represented in corporate, institutional and private collections in UK, USA, Canada, France, Hong Kong and Australia, including:
* Edinburgh City Council
* The Worshipful Company of Ironmongers
* The Ministry of Defence
* The China Club, Hong Kong
* The Tresco Estate
* Pembroke Management
* The Duke of Devonshire
* Searcy’s
* Duke’s Hotel St James’s
* The Earl of Verulam