James Hart Dyke. A year with MI6 (44 works)

From 15 to 26 February this year, the Mount Street Galleries, London W1 hosts an exhibition by artist James Hart Dyke - "A Year with MI6". James Hart Dyke is an artist who accompanied Prince Charles as official artist on four royal tours and worked as a war artist with the Grenadier Guards in Iraq and Afghanistan. MI6 (Government Secret Service of Great Britain) made an interesting offer to the artist, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Mi-6, to paint a series of paintings about the everyday life of intelligence. For a whole year, artist James Hart Dyke was listed as a staff artist for MI6.

James Hart Dyke began painting at the age of eight, after seeing a John Constable landscape which he was captivated by at the Victoria and Albert Museum. He graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1992, Faculty of Architecture, and after graduating from college he devoted himself entirely to painting, focusing on painting landscapes. Initially, James Hart Dyke established himself as an excellent artist of country houses, having professional architectural training. He has taken part in many private exhibitions and in 1998 was honored to have his work exhibited at a historical exhibition on the history of the country house from the fifteenth century to the present day at Sotheby's in London. In 1999 he published the book: James Hart Dyke. Country House Painting. His figurative work has been selected for the BP Portrait Awards at The National Portrait Gallery, The Royal Society of Portrait Painters Exhibitions, The Discerning Eye and he was commissioned to paint a portrait of HRH The Princess Royal and was commissioned to paint a portrait of His Royal Highness and princesses.

The ability to capture the essence of a landscape and the fleeting effects of light and color composition of a location made James Hart Dyke one of the finest artists in the British school of landscape painters.