A passion for likeness

 

In these days when contemporary art seems to be about eveything except representation, having a 'passion for likeness', an urge to recreate, is almost a guilty passion.  As I continue to try to improve my skills,  for the past 40 years I have done what artists have done for hundreds of years: re-work paintings and images I greatly admire because of a passion to master a process or to possess a version of my own.

 

Whole paintings, or just passages within them, often take my breath away. Faced with far greater talent, I endeavour to reproduce some of the effects and compositions which really inspire me.  These likenesses are not always the re-workings of others' paintings:  often I use photographs or living models to help re-create a lighting effect, a beautiful or magnificent face, a reflection or a combination of colours.