Portraiture is a celebration of life. Capturing the life & soul of such an enigmatic & powerful personality as the great Chief was certainly a challenge which required me to cultivate a highly focused & disciplined approach to achieve high realism.
Portrait Painting
Commissioned portrait of Michael in oils. 100/70 cm. completed Dec 2019.
This portrait of Michael was painted both from life & using a photo . Being able to paint from life with Michael posing for me allowed me to capture elements that would have been difficult just from a photograph.
The colours that i could see with my own eyes when observing Michael really helped to bring this portrait to life.
Michael being a Devotee Of Ganesha wanted Ganesha in the Painting . I carefully placed Ganesha using sacred geometry principles for placement.
Mother Meera portrait painting in oils. July 2019. 100/80 cm
Mother Meera Portrait.
This was a most ambitious undertaking and has allowed me to further develop my portrait skills. The painting took six months to complete, and every stage is covered in the ‘work in progress’ section at the bottom of this page.
Painting Mother Meera is always a joy, and capturing her divinity is the goal I seek to achieve to the best of my ability.
Indian Chief- Ghost dance ceremony . Portrait in oil. Completed 17/8/18
This portrait of the Indian Chief was deeply inspired by the ghost Dance . The ghost Dance was a way for the native Indians to keep their culture & shamanic beliefs alive .
I mainly used earth pigments in my Palette of colours. The main area of focus was the face & feathers. Capturing the spirit of crazy horse was of paramount importance which I feel I have achieved. The painting took three months to complete.
For more details on the painting process go to work in progress section, located at the bottom of this page.
Rudolf Steiner, portrait in oil. Completed 01 May 2018. 60/50 cm
Commissioned for the Ringwood Steiner School. Painting Rudolf Steiner has been a very rewarding experience. My main aim was to capture the powerful and enigmatic qualities of the man who contributed so much to humanity with his great spiritual outlook. I used a selection of more muted colours to emphasize the period of when Steiner was alive in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. My time studying portraiture is now allowing me to reach a stage in my artistic development to begin to capture the inner qualities of the portrait subject. For more details on the various stages of work, please refer to the work in progress section, located at the bottom of this page.
Anadamoyima. Portrait painting in oil. Commissioned for Heart of Yoga Foundation. Nov 2017. 70/50 cm
Anadamoyima, Indian saint-avatar. This painting is a commissioned painting for the Heart of Yoga Foundation. Painting spiritual portrait subjects is always a joy and, of course, a deeply enriching experience. The challenge as an artist and light worker is to capture the spiritual emanation of this unique human being that was born to serve and spread her divine light. The painting took four months to complete, as other projects were on the go. For more details on the various stages of this project go to work in progress, located near the bottom of this page.
Pictures kindly taken by my friend Steve Maybury.
Portrait of Mother Meera in oil. Completed August 2017. 90/70 cm
Painting Mother Meera has been by far my most rewarding portrait so far. Over the years I have visited Mother Meera to receive her darshan, her spiritual blessing. I was determined to capture her beautiful spiritual light, which shines from the core of her being. This was a portrait like no other. Each stage of this process was deeply moving and pushed my artistic skills to the limit. For the skin tone I used burnt umber, burnt sienna, cadmium yellow deep, raw sienna, green umber, violet, naples yellow, and flesh tone. For Mother Meera’s hair, Vandyke brown, violet, burnt sienna, alizarin, ultra marine blue, cerulean blue, paynes grey, and titanium white.
For more info and photos of the painting process from the beginning, please go to the work in progress section located near the bottom of this page.
Portrait of Jenny with Totem Deer
Portrait painting, 90 x 60 cm. Painting Jenny has been a challenging and deeply rewarding experience. I now feel my artistic skills are beginning to shine through, under the guidance and mentoring of Christina at studio 2. Mastering portraiture is my goal and I’m now at an important stage of my development as an artist. Colour harmony and applying cool/warm colours, particularly in portraying skin tone, is allowing more refinement, depth and contrast to achieve a convincing illusion of space in portraiture painting. Adding the Totem Deer in the background was a gamble that has paid off. The deer adds a spiritual dimension to the portrait representing an aspect the subject. A final burnt sienna glaze in walnut oil really brings the portrait to life.
Portrait of my Sister
portrait of my sister, 14 x 14 inches on canvas. this portrait was completed in Nov 2016 & took 2 months to complete from start to finish . i used Prussian blue,burnt umber & white for the background. the skin tone was built up in layers mainly using flesh tone colour , Naples yellow,burnt sienna,van dyke brown & permanent mauve plus a bit of white. I achieve the highlight tones mainly using Naples yellow. For the hair colour , van dyke brown , venetian red , raw sienna & some Naples yellow is used using a rigger brush .
Portrait of my Bother & Nephew in Oil
oil painting on canvass 60/40 cm. completed in August 2016 . this portrait took 3 months to complete, part of my tuition at studio 2 portraiture class with Christina .Painting this portrait introduced me to new painting techniques . for the background i used alizarin crimson red , scarlet red & permanent mauve with a touch of ultra marine blue. For the skin tone a combination of flesh tone colour ,burnt sienna, Naples yellow burnt umber & for my nephew more Naples yellow , sap green & white. For my brothers hair Vandyke brown , burnt sienna , ultra marine blue & Payne grey was applied .my nephew hair being lighter i used mainly raw sienna, Naples yellow , sap green & umber using a rigger brush.
