Oil on Aluminium Composite Material700mm x 1000mm x 3mmAvailable
£2,200.00 GBP
Artist Comments
Possibly my most involved portrait to date, this portrait of Steve Pallister includes significant pieces from his vast collection of coloured vinyl, alongside elements celebrating his strong family ties.
There's a quite the story to how this portrait came about:
A benefit of the pandemic, if one could call it a benefit, was that we started having groceries delivered.
In the early days, all delivery drivers would be wearing face coverings, but as time passed, new, naked faces would appear at my door.
There was one time my mind must have been elsewhere, when, having made the delivery, I realised that I needed to paint that face - the face that had just driven off!
As luck would have it, we have a video doorbell that records anyone approaching. I downloaded and printed the clearest images of my delivery driver. I then put my contact details in an envelope and waited until the following week’s food drop.
Like a spider in its lair, I waited…
“Do you recognise this man?” I asked the somewhat bewildered driver, as I wafted an A4 print bearing an image of my target in his hi-viz Tesco uniform.
“Yes, that’s Steve, he works the same shift as me”.
“In that case,” I said, “would you mind passing him this note?”
I explained that I like to paint people, particularly people with interesting faces and this big, beardy chap on my sheet of paper dropped into that category very nicely.
“Sure. No problem.”
Result!
Steve contacted me within days and, after some exchanges of messages, agreed to my proposal.
The procedure that followed gives one of my approaches I have with portraiture.
Christina Lauder is an award-winning photographer. I’ve collaborated with her many times with very positive results. Once we have a subject, we arrange a photo shoot where Christina provides her studio, lighting and photography skills and I will describe what I’m looking for in terms of reference material. Christina enjoys the challenge of exploring new and interesting lighting techniques and will often select some images to add to her portfolio, while I get a wonderful collection of reference images to work from. From these images, I’ll select elements - a face here, an arm/hand there etc., to arrive at the composition that works best from a painter’s point of view.
This is exactly what we did with Steve. He arrived, wearing something dark, as we’d previously agreed, a couple of hours were spent arranging and rearranging lighting, poses and props.
The painting was worked on for around seven months, punctuated by periods to allow the paint to dry ready for subsequent layers and glazes to be applied.
For me, this is quite a large painting at a metre wide, it allowed me to establish a hierarchy in value, hue and clarity – getting detailed where I wanted it, and more loose and relaxed where it needed to be.
Since completion of this painting, Steve has had more work filling in his tattooed ‘sleeve’, making this work already out of date!
Isn't any painting simply a moment in time?
Framed in Lion's Brompton 70mm matt black moulding.
Framed size - 800mm x 1100mm.
Free shipping on any UK orders.
Delivery to anywhere else in the world carries a 10% handling and shipping charge.
Possibly my most involved portrait to date, this portrait of Steve Pallister includes significant pieces from his vast collection of coloured vinyl, alongside elements celebrating his strong family ties.
There's a quite the story to how this portrait came about:
A benefit of the pandemic, if one could call it a benefit, was that we started having groceries delivered.
In the early days, all delivery drivers would be wearing face coverings, but as time passed, new, naked faces would appear at my door.
There was one time my mind must have been elsewhere, when, having made the delivery, I realised that I needed to paint that face - the face that had just driven off!
As luck would have it, we have a video doorbell that records anyone approaching. I downloaded and printed the clearest images of my delivery driver. I then put my contact details in an envelope and waited until the following week’s food drop.
Like a spider in its lair, I waited…
“Do you recognise this man?” I asked the somewhat bewildered driver, as I wafted an A4 print bearing an image of my target in his hi-viz Tesco uniform.
“Yes, that’s Steve, he works the same shift as me”.
“In that case,” I said, “would you mind passing him this note?”
I explained that I like to paint people, particularly people with interesting faces and this big, beardy chap on my sheet of paper dropped into that category very nicely.
“Sure. No problem.”
Result!
Steve contacted me within days and, after some exchanges of messages, agreed to my proposal.
The procedure that followed gives one of my approaches I have with portraiture.
Christina Lauder is an award-winning photographer. I’ve collaborated with her many times with very positive results. Once we have a subject, we arrange a photo shoot where Christina provides her studio, lighting and photography skills and I will describe what I’m looking for in terms of reference material. Christina enjoys the challenge of exploring new and interesting lighting techniques and will often select some images to add to her portfolio, while I get a wonderful collection of reference images to work from. From these images, I’ll select elements - a face here, an arm/hand there etc., to arrive at the composition that works best from a painter’s point of view.
This is exactly what we did with Steve. He arrived, wearing something dark, as we’d previously agreed, a couple of hours were spent arranging and rearranging lighting, poses and props.
The painting was worked on for around seven months, punctuated by periods to allow the paint to dry ready for subsequent layers and glazes to be applied.
For me, this is quite a large painting at a metre wide, it allowed me to establish a hierarchy in value, hue and clarity – getting detailed where I wanted it, and more loose and relaxed where it needed to be.
Since completion of this painting, Steve has had more work filling in his tattooed ‘sleeve’, making this work already out of date!
Isn't any painting simply a moment in time?
Framed in Lion's Brompton 70mm matt black moulding.
Framed size - 800mm x 1100mm.
Free shipping on any UK orders.
Delivery to anywhere else in the world carries a 10% handling and shipping charge.