Category: Art

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Portrait of a friend

This is a portrait of my friend and fellow artist Tarique. He posed in front of one of is wonderful large landscape paintings, which went quite well with his striped shirt.

preparatory drawing for portrait painting

It was an interesting challenge painting his painting. He uses a quite different palette to my own, and it was fun playing around with different blues.

portrait painting
tarique
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New Model

I have been looking for a new model to work with for quite some time, and last week I had a drawing session with the fascinating Dominic Blake. As well as being a professional life model he is also a writer on art and a campaigner for better working conditions for life models. If you are a life model or even an artist who employs models, you should really check out his website: dominicblake.co.uk/are-life-models-artists

I am planning a new series of paintings, where the model is set within a domestic environment, in natural poses; either relaxing, bathing or doing chores. It’s a return to a theme I worked on about ten years ago and was inspired by Degas’ wonderful pastel nudes.
The sitting went well enough. As it turned out, we didn’t move out of the kitchen, as the light was so good in there.

Update: Painting completed

nude painting of man on floor

It took me a while to get the expression I wanted, but I’m pleased with how it turned out.

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Old and New

I was recently clearing out my late Mum’s house, when I came across a self-portrait that I must have painted when an Art School – probably 1983-84. I don’t have any of my old student paintings, and so this is an interesting reminder of my old painting technique.

I’ve shown it below along with my most recent self-portrait, to show the difference in styles. It’s strange, but I imagine the younger me would look at my recent portrait and be very happy with it. Old me looks at my ragged early work, and sees a freshness that I am rather jealous of.

self portraits, old and new