Nigel
This is Nigel, a magnificent Golden Retriever. I love the way his glimmering hair looks like gold cascading down a mountain
Notorious
Pug in a bowtie
The Creation of: Liam Allen
The development of Liam Allen.
The Creation of: Oscar
I completed this commission for Michael Marks, Sports Masseuse extraordinaire at the Virgin Active Health and Racquets Club.
Horse in the Field with a Golden Dawn
The colour of the sun here reminds of a line a East of Eden by John Steinbeck, where he is describing the colour of the crop in the field: "not gold, but as if pure gold were liquid and could raise a cream, that golden cream might be like the colour..."
A Commission: Booja
See the development of Booja, a commission done for Lynda Johnson for her twin sister in Australia. He's all grown up now.
The Creation of: A Little Puppy
I saw this little fella in the vets whilst taking my girl in. I asked for a picture and, voila!
Nawal: An Original Commission
Luckily, I managed to garner great inspiration from this piece. Nawal has an inherent glamour to her, and the specific pose in this image reinforces and bolsters her appeal in this regard. It's rather moody, but also natural - a hard mix to capture. But it's uniqueness meant that I found it easy to shape and build - it has a stark and definitive motif around which the features can be placed.
Jessica: A Christmas Present
Jessica is a gentle, kind, warm and non-flashy girl. She is considerate to a fault and in twenty one years I've never heard her say a bad thing about anyone - although she did one suffer a propensity for laziness
The Creation of: Molly
Representation in terms of angle, proportion, size and colour is. of course, the primary importance - but feeling and atmosphere, the ghostly, not-quite-definable qualities of a portrait, are what truly capture the subject and give the initial impact.
Jack: An Original Commission
The grossly unfair "spec" of time that we have with our beloved pets is made that much more poignantly painful when they were the recipients of our parental pinning too. It's heart-wrenching! I can tell that even without being a parent yet myself.
Double-Think: Striving to be Unhappy
Prior to these days of easy teases into the life of the extraordinary rich by watching one of a multiplying number of odious TV shows or twitter feeds, the average guy didn't have extravagance rubbed in his face at all times. He didn't know what he was missing, so to speak. But, knowing exactly what they are missing, has engendered a crop of deluded, envious and extremely confused youngsters seeking fame, power and wealth.