By Nick Collins TUESDAY night fever was in the air for a West Hampstead artist when one of the Bee Gees turned up at an exhibition of her work. Marta Grigorieva was unveiling her latest figurative paintings when Robin Gibb made a guest appearance. The hon

By Nick Collins

TUESDAY night fever was in the air for a West Hampstead artist when one of the Bee Gees turned up at an exhibition of her work.

Marta Grigorieva was unveiling her latest figurative paintings when Robin Gibb made a guest appearance.

The honour came because the artist's new exhibition, One Light, features a short film with music by the Gibb brothers.

"I was showing a six-minute film set to the music of two Bee Gees songs so he wanted to honour that," said Ms Grigorieva, of Gondar Gardens.

"One of the songs, Spicks and Specks, is one of their earliest so I think he appreciated that."

Tragedy was the other song featured in the video and paintings exhibition, which opened at the No. 5 Cavendish Square in Marylebone last Tuesday.

"It was absolutely wonderful. There was a wide range of people there from financiers to film industry people to friends," said Ms Grigorieva.

"They all got along and it was wonderful. I also sold a painting, the major picture I made for that exhibition."

Image Of A Woman, the signature piece, sold for £3,500 in a silent auction.

Ms Grigorieva said: "There is a woman with a skirt and a sunrise behind her, and you see the power and the strength of

the woman.

"It was sold to a woman from Surrey who said she could relate to it so much. I looked at her and I knew that she is the kind of person who should have it."

The use of video was a milestone for the Russian-born artist, who has studios in London and the Dominican Republic.

She said: "It was special for me because it was the first time I made a film, and working with a film and editing it I realised there are so many parallels in different art forms.

"The question of music, where the image is worked out to music, means it follows to the image of the songs."

She mainly uses impressionist techniques but her latest paintings are examples of what she calls "new wave portraiture".

Ms Grigorieva trained in New York under Nelson Shanks, who has painted the like of Princess Diana, Bill Clinton and Margaret Thatcher. She has also had work commissioned for US senator Edward Kennedy and the New England Patriots American football team.

The artist studied music when she was at school and has economics degree from Moscow Technological University.

She said: "When I graduated I moved to New York immediately and started painting, just naturally. It probably was just a natural progression because I think that's what I'm here for.

"I think I am very lucky to do what I love. On top of it I am free."

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