London Art College Success Stories - Roger Burnay

Rogers Background
Commencing his career in the kitchens as an Apprentice Chef followed by four years management training he quickly rose through the ranks as Assistant Manager to become Rank Hotels, youngest General Manager at the age of 23.

Following an extensive career as General Manager, he then moved into corporate management with Trusthouse Forte as Area Director of 24 hotels in the North, Cumbria and Scotland, a position he held for five years. This led to becoming the Operations Director of CIGA Hotels for their 25 luxury hotels throughout Italy, based in Milan he quickly adapted to the culture and language of the country. Regrettably his family did not adapt and so in 1987 he returned to the UK and joined Pannell Kerr Forster Associates as an Associate Director to set up their Hospitality Recruitment Division.

In 1989 Roger set up Grapevine International Limited to provide Executive Search and Selection for Middle and Senior Management in the Hospitality Industry. In the past four years the company has diversified more into the Consultancy side as well in recognition of the vast needs within the Industry for professional advice, resulting in the setting up of Grapevine International Services Ltd to develop these concepts further.

Married with two children, one step daughter, and seven grandchildren Roger lives with his wife, Maureen and two manic but very lovable Burmese Cats in Caister-on-Sea in Norfolk.

Art Profile

I started art in my late teens and focused on drawing animals using a mapping pen and black ink. This involved drawing each hair/feather of the animal. The Guide Dogs for the Blind approached me to draw a design for their products but unfortunately my pen strokes were too fine for the printing process. On their suggestion I changed to a brush and learnt to paint, firstly in ink but also experimenting with oils and watercolours along the way. I kept returning to pen and wash mainly due to the length of time oils took to dry and the smell would hang around for ages.

In the following years, a combination of getting married, raising a family and the pressures of developing a career resulted in painting taking a back seat, although I still dabbled from time to time. Photography helped me to keep an interest in composition and style.

It was really only after my wife bought me a fantastic set of watercolours and her nagging at me to use them that I started to get back to a hobby that I had thoroughly enjoyed previously. Since then many of my paintings have appeared in local Galleries and have sold many at different Exhibitions such as the Maritime Festival in Great Yarmouth, Great Yarmouth Guild of Artists Exhibition and others in and around Norfolk.

Following my success I decided to improve my art and took two courses at the London Art College, one in watercolours, a medium I use for the many seascapes I have done and the other in pet portraits, which is my absolute forte. I think that one of the main benefits of the course, apart from the excellent guidance and direction of the tutor, Melanie Phillips, was that the course encouraged use of all mediums whether oil, pastel, acrylic, coloured pencil or graphite each with their own unique properties. The course opened up a whole new world artistically speaking for me and as a result my work goes from strength to strength..

Both during the course and since finishing it, I have been successful in attracting commissions not only from friends and neighbours, but now more importantly from others through personal recommendations. As a result of this I have developed a website to promote this aspect still further with a Gallery of work undertaken. Attending the Maritime Festival in Great Yarmouth with a small photographic display of my pet artwork, attracted a great deal of interest, similarly at various Dog Shows subsequently, consequently my diary for the next few months is now rather full with commissions. I have also started doing workshops in coloured pencil for local art groups.

Future developments will also include the provision of Prints and Greeting cards etc of many of the works completed and hopefully will give me a whole new career for the future as well as being a very enjoyable hobby.

Roger can be contacted for commission work at this address –

Email: Roger@pets-portraitartist.com;

Web http://www.pets-portraitartist.com