News

  • Edwin Mackenzie, known as Diogenes, laid to rest twenty years after the death of Robert Lenkiewicz
    November 14, 2022

    In the twenty years since Robert Lenkiewicz’s death in August 2002, The Lenkiewicz Foundation has worked to secure a lasting legacy which will ensure the preservation of as much of the artist’s archive as possible. His voluminous diaries and notebooks are now stored securely, courtesy of The Box (Plymouth Museum), and much of the archive has been digitised and is available on the Foundation’s website or on request to researchers or for educational purposes.

    Later this year, the second and concluding part of the comprehensive first biography by Dr Mark Price, commissioned by the Foundation, will be published.

    As many people know, after Lenkiewicz’s estate was resolved, the Foundation became the custodian of an embalmed human cadaver under a license issued by the Human Tissue Authority. The remains are of the vagrant Edwin Mackenzie (1912-1984). Known as Diogenes, Edwin worked for fifteen years as an assistant to the artist Robert Lenkiewicz (1941-2002) at his studio in...

  • About Louise Courtnell
    October 6, 2019

    Louise Courtnell met Robert Lenkiewicz in 1987. He became her mentor and teacher and there followed an intensive two year 'apprenticeship' in painting, which concentrated on the understanding of tone.

    Her work includes landscape and still-life, however she has always had a passion for portraiture. She has been a regular exhibitor at the National Portrait Gallery, (BP Portrait Award) from 1991 to 2001 and was commended for two self-portraits. Commissions have included Dr. Rowan Williams, (2002) and Robert, Earl of Edgcumbe, (2008).

    She reveres the work of Rembrandt and Van Dyck. In her opinion, the greatest and most moving paintings ever made were Rembrandt's late self-portraits, which remind us of our own mortality and humanity. She also feels strongly that there is a place for the observational painter in a world of the instant, digital image.

    Courtnell has run a painting class in Kingsand for 17 years and gives private tuition, following Robert's approach to...

  • EDUCATION25
    October 13, 2013

    Check our News and Events announcements on this website or our Facebook page for updates.

    Picture: Governors of Southway School (The Blind Leading the Blind), 1987. Oil on canvas, 213 x 610 cm.

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