Here is my oil portrait of the talented and beautiful Beth Dariti. As always, if you are interested in having your portrait painted or want to say or ask anything, don’t hesitate to email me.

Here is my latest portrait: my friend Avye Leventis -yogi, acrobat, and actress extraordinaire.

I am very happy with the compositional balance of this painting, and enjoyed developing my colour layering and glazing process. I also managed to make less mess than usual, which really is progress.

As always, if you fancy having your portrait painted just drop me a line.

It’s the general election today, and Britain awaits its fate at the hands of itself. This year’s campaign has been quite a show. Three politicians, three tv debates, one press baron and one quite nice-looking bigot from Rochdale.

Well, truth be told, I have found it all quite underwhelming. I feel saturated with press-speak: limp sound-bytes, predictable questions, and answers designed to concede nothing and sound righteous.

People are claiming the tv debates are influential. And of course Nick Clegg’s appearance gave the Lib Dems an immense 10 point boost. But I would suggest it was just that: being shown on the same platform as the ‘old parties’ as he would put it gave him electoral eligibility. I don’t think he was any better than the other two, but he did seem in the same class. The difference is being made by the large dissatisfied group who found their unity on the internet campaigning against Cowell’s hegemony of British pop. Now they have figured they might be able to do the same with politics. Who knows? Maybe it will work.

If anything I feel quite sorry for Brown, Cameron, and Clegg. Just looking at them makes me feel exhausted with all their round-the-clock tub thumping. Gordon looks like he is about to keel over, Dave looks like he has taken too much coke, and I am pretty sure Nick’s yellow bus is padded on the inside. Bless ‘em.

Anyway, enough of this. Here are some sketches I have made recently.

This is my friend Thuli

I enjoy drawing hands. I love how they rest so gently, but with so much energy stored in them.

Right, I’m off to plug into Dimbleby.

Here is a study I recently made of a Madonna by the late Renaissance genius Bronzino. It is obviously unfinished in many parts (lips, veil etc), but my purpose was to practice skin lightness and facial composure.

I love Bronzino. Although widely revered, he is not usually included in the pantheon of  grand masters of the High Renaissance alongside Da Vinci or Michelangelo. He is most famous in popular culture for painting an allegory with Venus and Cupid snogging from which Terry Gilliam famously excised the foot which squashed the Monty Python titles. The painting itself is stunningly executed, except for the horribly contorted stance of cupid. I reckon he was twisted so that Bronzino could have him snogging his mother and showing off his pert bottom in the same composition – I know it sounds brazen, but you know what that lot were like.

I think Bronzino is one of the greatest painters of all time, for various reasons. The greatest wealth of his work is of course in Florence, but it is well worth checking out the three paintings by him in the National Gallery (including the licentious allegory, you’ll be glad to hear).

I have been busy working on this portrait of my friend Mr JRampling.

I have a few people lined up to paint but, as I have said before, if you would like to me to do your portrait then just email me or the like.

Today Patrick Mcgoohan passed away. You may recall my post on The Prisoner which was full of lurid descriptions of my admiration for Mcgoohan’s magnum opus. So I won’t go into any more detail here about that fantastic and bizarre series which (unlike any other I could name) really puts the vision into television.

Mcgoohan was as cool and suave as his name was not. It is hard to understand why he is not more of a cultural icon, I mean look at this photo:

Smouldering, mysterious, and complex as the Mona Lisa.

It is interesting that he also played and excelled in a role which could not have been more different from Number Six. I am referring to his role opposite Clint Eastwood as the Warden in Don Siegel’s Escape from Alcatraz. It is perhaps one of the greatest ‘bad guy’ performances ever. You get such a strong impression of  the dictatorial Warden’s overbearing malice that it totally saturates the atmosphere of the film. This amplifies the tension as Eastwood’s character endeavours with his daring plot to escape: he is not just escaping from a grotty building or from some grumpy guards, but from the asphyxiating evil of the Warden. Achieving so much (with few lines) is a remarkable feat of acting.

There is a scene in which Mcgoohan’s character discovers that one of the prisoners, a poor old guy called Doc, has painted a portrait of him. The Warden is less than flattered. Doc’s painting privileges are removed, eventually resulting in his grotesque self-mutilation. The actual painting which was produced for the film is excellent (typical of Don Siegel’s attention to detail).

You get the picture. Those eyes could freeze lava.

Mcgoohan must have sat for the portrait, of course. And I wonder what he tried to think of to give that impression of cruel dominance? May be he thought about the secret tyrant of The Prisoner, Number One. He must have spent a long time considering this Big Brother figure when writing the series, which was such a personal project to him.

I find this curious little moment in film-making history to be quite fascinating, especially considering that, in the climax of The Prisoner,  Number Six finds that he has to look within himself for his final battle with the architect of oppression. Perhaps there was more to  Mcgoohan’s choice to play The Warden than meets the eye.

I have uploaded nine sketches of faces here

Some look at me

Some have their attentions elsewhere

And some are asleep

Those are the three main categories.