Roger Arguile (b.1952) is a British artist and Art Therapist. He trained at Exeter, Reading, and Goldsmiths in London. Roger’s work concerns his interest in portraits, particularly from the perspective of the life energy of the subject. It is the power of this energy that can cause a kind of engagement between the viewer and the image.

He is interested in the emotional and visual impact created by the reality of the oil paint, and the evidence and memory evoked by the photograph when incorporated as one image. By making paintings in this way, his motivation is that the work should have a sense of life, and that photographs or objects are, in a way, honoured by their preservation within the oil paint, held within a frame. There is an intentional anonymity in the subjects of Roger’s works, in that the people are unnamed. This is because the artwork is a universal commentary, yet portrayed through that which is personal and sometimes intimate.

The physicality of the paint overlaying a photograph brings about a sense that the raw materials used may trigger a direct, and perhaps elemental response in the viewer. The making of prints from these images is pertinent to the whole process in that it feeds back to the artist’s interest in, and use of, film and sequential photography. In this way the printed image becomes as relevant as the original painting.