Posts filed under 'New Work'
I was commissioned to do 2 portraits of Sir Adam Roberts, president of the British Academy on the Mall and also principal of Balliol College, Oxford. Both institutions had one image each. Here are the two drawings, roughly A2 in size in charcoal, carbon, graphite and ink. 
August 1st, 2013
My portrait of Eric Sykes was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery last week and is on show now for a while in their new re-hang to coincide with the Man ray exhibition. It is on the ground floor gallery space .
February 17th, 2013
6 Realist artists, including myself ,were invited to participate in an exhibition called “British Realism Now ” by the Metro Gallery in Melbourne. It opens next week until 24th December 2012 and we’re delighted to be flying the flag for British Realism, a big underground movement in British art but not seen in Australia before.
December 2nd, 2012
The National Portrait Gallery have recently purchased my portrait of the late comedy writer and actor Eric Sykes for their collection. Eric was one of the nicest sitters that I have ever had , a lovely man and I’m so pleased that he has found a home in the National Portrait Gallery. It’s a larger than life head study of Eric in Charcoal and pencil at just over A1 size.
I’m currently working on a new commission for the NPG but I can’t reveal who it is yet.
More recently I’ve been working on a commission for Manchester Grammar School but I can’t unveil that yet until 2015.
December 2nd, 2012
Here is a recent portrait commission that I did for a family in London, I’m always a little warey of putting too much information about people so I’ll just refer to the brother and sister as Bunny and Jack. It’s a large drawing , the framed size is approx 48″ x 40″. it’s in pencil and charcoal. There is a beautiful Baroque fireplace in their house , huge , and I really wanted to use that as a very dramatic background, almost creating a pictuire with githic drama with the atmospheric lighting. I also wanted them to look relaxed.
December 2nd, 2012
Here is a recent drawing that I completed just before Christmas. It was commissioned by their father David and these are his two sons and the drawing in the background to the right was a self portrait of their grandfather and the painting to the left was a painting of the interior of the family business. It’s a very large drawing , bigger than A0 and I think is the largest I’ve done to date. I was with the atmosphere of the drawing and the boy’s depiction, Anthony being very relaxed and Nicholas more rigid which created a nice tension in the piece I think. I particularly enjoyed the shape rhythms in the shadows on Nicholas’s hands, they seem to flow very nicely. Most importantly perhaps they both had interesting faces reflecting their Jewish herritage.
February 13th, 2012
Here’s a portrait of Anne’s excellent niece, Kate. She came around to my studio one Sunday morning and put on a selection of hats, the one on the right I have used in quite a few portraits and I always think a beret looks incredibly cool and I liked this image ( on the left) because it felt quite timeless, almost asif it could have come from the 1940’s.
She’s not quit as solemn as she is in these drawings, I asked her to look serious.
It’s a drawing on A2 size paper so the overall mounted size is just bigget than A1
May 9th, 2011
click to enlarge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWQwFSpsXWc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY36gf62nzU
Here is a recently finished drawing of the Birmingham based Jazz musician Andy Hamilton CBE. I think Andy is now around 92 years old. He’s been playing in and around Birmingham for years as well as internationally. I saw him years ago at The Bear jazz club in Birmingham where he played weekly for years. I’ve been meaning to catch up with him for a long time, a little like Kitty, and back in the summer I arranged to go around to his house for a sitting which went wonderfully. When I arrived he came gliging down the staircase on his stair lift dressed in his perfectly appropriate pin striped suit and trilby clutching his saxophone. Andy is exactly the kind of sitter I love to paint or draw because he looks so fantastic and authentic and also because of my interest in music.
This one will be in the show at Plus One.
February 27th, 2011
invitation-black-and-white-1.pdf – (click on link)
The Frissiras Museum , Athens. 2/3/11 – 31/7/11
The Frissaris Museum is about to stage an exhibition called “Black and White”. It features work from their collection of drawings, etchings paintings and lithographs. They sent me a catalogue yesterday because they are showing one of my paintings and it looks like a great show. I like the poster with the fantastic Greek typography. Quite a lot of the artists are Greek and I’m not familiar with most so it’s lovely to see what they are up to. There are a few names I recognise, Aurback, Hockney and Rego so we’re all certainly in good company. It’s nice to see galleries doing shows in monochrome, it’s a wonderful area to explore.
Americans Now, The Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C. Continues until 10th July.
http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/americansnow/index.html
This exhibition features to of my portraits, Cormac McCarthy and Prof. Murray Gell-Mann.
In Focus, Plus One Gallery, London. 16/3/11 – 9/4/11
http://www.plusonegallery.com/Shows-Detail.cfm?ShowsID=215
This show opens in a few weeks and features the figurative work of 3 artists, Philip Harris, Simon Hennessey and myself.
February 27th, 2011
Previous Posts
