Celia Montague

Celia Montague is a painter based in England and works between studios in Oxford and Venice.

She graduated in Modern and Mediaeval Languages from St. Hugh’s College, Oxford. After life drawing studies at the Ruskin School of Art, her formal training as a painter was at Heatherley’s School of Drawing and Fine Art in London, where she took the Diploma in Portraiture  (2007–2009), and then studied life painting for a further two years at the Royal Drawing School.

She is committed to painting in front of her subject and her landscapes are painted en plein air. In bad weather in England she has the comfort and shelter of her beloved painting van. One of the pleasures of painting her portraits always in the presence of the sitter is the friendships that these beget.

Since 2010 she has exhibited with several galleries in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and London, with London solo shows in 2012 and 2022. Since 2014 she has been represented by Cricket Fine Art in Chelsea, London.

Painting was not her first career, though it was a great love from an early age. She chose to train as a lawyer after Oxford University, and qualified and practised as a barrister in London chambers before swerving into a career as an actor, in theatre, television and film (playing leading and supporting roles for the BBC) while bringing up two sons.

She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

EXHIBITIONS

Solo exhibitions:

• 2022   ‘A Light in the Heart’ at Cricket Fine Art, 2 Park Walk, London SW10
• 2012   ‘Eden’ at The Gallery, 54 Shepherd Market, London W1

Joint exhibitions include:

• 2014 – present  Cricket Fine Art, London
• 2022 – 2025  Zuleika Gallery, Woodstock, Oxfordshire
• 2021/2/3/4  Cricket Fine Art
• 2022    Green & Stone Summer Exhibition, London SW3
• 2020    Cricket Fine Art
• 2019    Cricket Fine Art
• 2018    Cricket’s Little Picture Show, Hungerford
• 2017    Faces of Ruskin Exhibition, Exeter College, Oxford
• 2017    Kyffin Gallery, Woodstock, Oxfordshire
• 2016    Cricket Fine Art, 2 Park Walk, Chelsea. Mixed Christmas Show.
• 2016    Fosse Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold. Christmas Exhibition of Gallery Artists
• 2016    Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1:  Lynn Painter Stainers Prize 2016
• 2016    St. Hugh’s College, Oxford, Festival of Anniversaries Exhibition
• 2015/16   Fosse Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold, Mixed Exhibition
• 2015    Summer Collection, Iona House Gallery, Woodstock, Oxford
• 2015    Venice in Peril,  Osborne Studio Gallery,  2 Motcomb Street, London SW1
• 2014    20/21 British Art Fair, Royal College of Art
• 2014    Cricket Fine Art, London SW10
• 2014    AAF Battersea
• 2014    Chelsea Arts Club
• 2013/14   Fosse Gallery, Stow-on-the-Wold, Christmas Exhibition
• 2013    Browse and Darby, London W1, Summer exhibition ‘Gallery Artists’
• 2013    Browse and Darby, London W1, Spring exhibition ‘Gallery Artists’
• 2013    Fosse Gallery, Christmas Exhibition
• 2013    Fosse Gallery, Summer Exhibition
• 2013    Fosse Gallery, Spring Exhibition
• 2012    Fosse Gallery, Christmas Exhibition
• 2010/11/12/13   Swann Gallery, Woodstock, Oxon
• 2012    1 Essex Court, Temple, London EC4
• 2011    Oxford Town Hall
• 2011    Blackwell’s Book Shop, Oxford
• 2011    St. Barnabas Church, Oxford
• 2009/10/11  Said Business School, Oxford
• 2008/9 Heatherleys, London