about me as a portrait painter and artist
Rather than training as a portrait painter, I studied design at Central Saint Martins College of Art. I also studied for a degree in History of Art at University College, London, where I specialized in 19th century French painting
and first became interested in portraiture (See a few of my very favourite portraits below!). Based in London, I work as a portrait painter for private portrait clients and as an artist in the film industry where I have worked on films such as Casino Royale, Sweeney Todd, Nine, Robin Hood and Dark Knight Rises (set decorators please click here for film samples). I have also worked on the new Harry Potter Theme Park in Orlando, Florida.
I enjoy working in oils and pencils equally, and above all I am fascinated by faces and love painting and drawing them. My goal is always to produce portraits that 'capture' my subjects' expression and character, and I'm so pleased when customers tell me that I've achieved this.
a few favourite portrait painters (and photographers!)
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recommended portrait exhibitions
BP Portrait Award 2010 at the National Portrait Gallery Figurative painting isn't fashionable in modern art and portrait painting even less, so it wasn't a big surprise that most of the papers didn't even cover the annual portrait exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. There was a small flutter of interest in the fact that the prize had been won by a simultaneously compelling but hard-to-look-at portrait of a dead woman - the 100 year-old mother of the portrait painter Daphne Todd. This was a surprising choice for the BP Awards which usually go to examples of the photo-realist style - every line and pore of the skin and fibre of the clothes faithfully rendered - that generally dominates the final selection. Second and third prizes this year went to this type of portrait, but in general there was less of it around than last year and some beautiful works from some talented portrait painters in amongst them.  One of my favourites was Thea Penna's Lila Pearl (above left), an immensely empathic portrait of a child that isn't in the slightest bit sentimental. Another portrait that seemed to brilliantly portray a sense of childhood was Alex Hanna's Sandy Watching (above right), a portrait of the artist's son who had just finished his first day at primary school and is shown sitting staring at the television. His isolation within the wide canvas, dressed in his new school uniform and with the hint of an open door architrave behind, seemed to emphasize his vulnerability away from the comfort of his home. I love a portrait that seems to portray a lot with a very limited amount of detail and for that reason I loved this little painting with it's broad strokes and limited palette: Geneva by Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco (below left). I also liked Quena by Eliot Haigh (below, centre) with for its beautiful paint handling and the rather old-fashioned blouse the sitter is wearing, that seemed to add to the impression of her contemplative and serious mood. One portrait that grew on me as I looked at it was Raol Martinez's portrait of the actor Alan Rickman (below, right) Rickman himself is painted with a conventionally-handled thick layer of paint, which is interestingly contrasted again the blank 'unfinished' expanse of white canvas above him. The table on which he is resting his body is simply indicated by a line, deliberately undermining the 'realism' of the body sitting at it. It's as if he is 'real' and his setting is overtly 'invented', appropriate for an actor who of course creates stories and narratives from a 'blank canvas'. 
On at the National Portrait Gallery, London, until 17th September 2010 (free)
Click the link above for more info on the portrait painters mentioned.
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