Completed Painting

The first completed painted in a series called

WOMAN

Woman no1 (featuring Nicola)

Work in Progress

The work process always forces you to complete the project as thoroughly as your skill allows.  The image changes and you have to rein it back towards the likeness.  My enjoyment comes in the smallest single areas of paint like tiny abstract shapes and blends which when finished reveals the image and likeness. JD

Simply titled 'Nicola'

Here is a pastel sketch of a portrait that is simple in its composition and hopefully engaging in its impact on the viewer.  The subject is a beautiful and troubled young woman, who like so many of her contemporaries struggles with her own self image and sadly her self worth.  Yet, despite these issues 'Nicola' has a serenity that comes across when you catch her unawares.  I want to show in this portrait a beauty that the subjects own self image denies her seeing.  I want in some small way to show her that no matter how cruel and hateful the remarks made at her expense can sound, those who love her can see the genuine beauty she possesses.

New Beginnings - Actor re-turned as Artist

Well, so begins an exciting opportunity for me, to exist online alongside the many Artists I have admired over my many years of study and practise.  

My scepticism as a young adult - of the Art world and Artists generally - in deciding which path to pursue, led me away from attempts at formal Art training and into the equally precarious field of entertainment - Acting to be precise.  

I guess I figured,  I could continue my designs on Art as a 'second string' but if I wanted to succeed in Acting I would have to commit totally.  My first, conscious influence was a wonderful gentle man & father to my closest childhood friends, Frank West, not necessarily an Artist anyone beyond his family would recognise as a force of artistic prowess - but never-the-less a genuinely gifted craftsman and practitioner.

He said on more than one occasion that an artist can work anywhere, anytime and with any material.  And of course he was absolutely right.  So my drawing skills could always be in use, as I moved away from the pretentious institutions who in the 70's were already proclaiming style over substance as the future of Art to each successive, creative generation.