“The Curious Case of the Levitating, Tattooed Man”. – Acrylic on Canvas -“48″ x 33”
I met Ray a few years ago and admired his full body tattoo from neck to ankle in a japanes style. I invited him over to my studio for the day and took a series of shots. We decided to do the whole shoot with Ray naked , which kind of made sense. Anne had been out for the morning and forgot Ray was coming over and barged into the studio with Max, our dog. Ray was in a curled up foetus position and Max went straight over to inspect Ray’s bum. Quite an entrance. It was a great shoot though, we must have done about 18 different compositions and this is the first painting that I have done from the sitting. I liked the idea that he was levitating because it was such a calm, contemplative pose and I just imagined Ray in a Zen like trance, gently rising up just a few inches off the ground.
This will be in the exhibition in London during March ( together with other new pieces and some previous work) with the excellent artists Philip Harris and Simon Hennessey.
I’ll be completing my portrait drawing of Andy Hamilton CBE very soon so I’ll post that next week.
(click on the image to enlarge)
February 19th, 2011