Recent work

Here's some recent paintings:

His Holiness, in a pastiche to Manet's the fifer.
Quite happy with this one;painted it on a big block of wood. It was nice to paint His Holiness and reflect on his qualities whilst I did so. I gave this one away to a friend, and gladly it's reinvigorated me to paint him again. 

This is my friend Francesca. It's part of an ongoing series that are in tune with the seasons. She's my winter girl. The feel I was after was 'cold outside, warmth inside'.  This changed as the painting went on; I just wanted to capture a homely welcoming spirit; also the challenge was not to objectify her too. I feel glad on this front - I think she came out lookin' sexy, but not sexualised. She looks like she's got the power over the viewer too, I'd say. 

This was a commision. I wanted to give it a bit of a Degas feel. This picture is not actually of the finished painting. In the finished painting, the dogs head is flipped about the other way. I changed it last minute - an hour before my train. I thought it'd relate the closeness between the two better if their eyes crossed view. So that's what I did.

Here is myself & my pal Ori. These were done one night when I hadn't painted for a while. I like the feel of them, they feel quite fun. Caricatures of our souls. Him, the poet in the meadow, dreamin' of some distance, and me, some brooding mad-man, in equal measure intense & comical. They were just for the sake of painting, and I am glad of them.

This one was done just before christmas. I kinda wanted to continue the feel of the previous self-portrait, give it an intensity. Also give it a 'dead-of-night, but lively' feel too - 'serious conversation under lamplight' sorta thing. Or like a game of chess that really keeps you on your toes and your lips curling eachway.