Commission a Portrait

Where does a portrait fit? For many years I earned my crust as a caricaturist, wandering the tables at corporates, drawing the guests at weddings. I must have drawn a hundred thousand faces over the years. I worked as the in house artist for Portrait Artist of the year (so I’m not allowed to enter) and ended up drawing for royalty. I reached a position with my art that I never expected to reach. I had achieved everything in caricature that I set out to do and so had to cast around for a new direction. I chose landscape painting and I haven’t regretted it for a moment. However, the portrait itch was still there...

I never fancied it as a commercial task because I didn’t believe that people would know what to do with a painted portrait in this day and age. The stiff and formal classical portraits from many hours of sitting still seem well at home on the walls of a stately home or castle, but I really couldn’t see where it would fit in most peoples everyday life (kids move an awful lot!). 

Now I am seeking to redefine portraiture as something fun relaxed striking and incredibly memorable. somewhere in a hinterland between caricature and portraiture. A portrait should be fun, have movement and life. Sometimes a likeness is conveyed by a subjects posture or movement.

I believe my painting abilities are now strong enough that I can extract someone’s character, sense of humour and personality in paint and do something that no photo, AI or sketch could ever manage.

I work with photos, video and a few brief live sittings. I like to visit the subject and start the portrait in front of them, then take it away with all of the notes I have gathered and find somewhere in between what we recognise as formal portraiture and something that most people would feel comfortable commissioning. I can work entirely from photos if the subject can't sit or it's a surprise but then I'm much more bound to the photographer so multiple pictures and perhaps video are helpful.

If you fancy exploring this kind of portrait with me then drop me a message and we can work out times dates and sizes, and hopefully come up with something extraordinary and totally unique.