Fanny Rush

Will Riccio

Will is American and I took my reference photographs while he was on holiday here in London. He says the sash windows are so ‘London’ that he will always remember being here when he looks at the portrait.

Charles Dance

Charles and I made a short test film for a TV program that involved me painting this portrait.

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Robin Stainer

Robin rowed at Oriel College, Oxford: Those rowing ‘outstandingly’ for Oriel are nominated to become ‘Tortoises’, a prestigious honour for over a hundred years. Robin and a couple of students re-configured the Tortoise Club several years ago making massive changes like including female rowers. He invested a lot of time and, although less is now called for because the Tortoise Club is well established, it means a lot to him.

The tortoise in the portrait was bought in Turkey and is very important to Robin who lived and worked in Istanbul in the 1970’s and speaks, he says, now-rusty Turkish.

Shane Warne

I was commissioned to paint Shane Warne by the Marylebone Cricket Club for the Long Room at Lord’s. An amazing commission it gave me my 15 minutes of fame and took me to commissions in India and Australia.

Marcelle and Sally

These little girls are very sweet, but I really didn’t want to make a ‘cute’ portrait. The vibrant and beautiful contrasting colours turquoise and fuchsia, and such a strong diagonal shape gave me what I wanted.

Sam Rush

Sam is my brother — This portrait shows Sam as we all know him and we love having it in the family.

John Studzinski

I painted John against the light, which is unusual. I think it gives the portrait a feeling of the depth of this man.

Elizabeth Philion

Elizabeth is a brilliant interior designer. She will completely re-build a house and select everything in it down to the teaspoons. I painted her amongst the fabrics and textures that are her finishing touches.

Ian

What can I say? this is exactly like him.

Sunil Mittal

Arriving in Delhi on my first trip to India, I took a taxi to meet Sunil at his utterly beautiful house. I was late because we had to follow an elephant walking on the freeway. I fell in love with India at that moment.

Kevin Ching

Kevin was my first Hong Kong Commission. Kevin is the Chief Executive of Sotheby’s Asia and this portrait opened up Asia for me. I call this portrait ‘Kevin Ching and His Magnificent Arm’.

Isaac, Charles and Raphael

I didn’t want any one boy to dominate. I sat the little one, Raphael in the foreground, Charles in the middle, leaning backward and Isaac at the top, leaning forward, so that all of their faces are exactly the same size. This painting is huge — it’s the size of a door

Dr Prathap Reddy

I met Dr Reddy at his home in Chennai. He greeted me and sat down on his sofa, and there it was — a perfect composition.

Richard Jordan

I love contrasts not only in colour, shape, light but also in ideas. As Rick is informal I think it works to have him in this fairly classical pose.

Ben Lucas

I really like these portraits of just the head and shoulders. They are both powerful and intimate.

Ajit Gulabchand

Ajit is a wise man, which I think you can see. I included a nod to India in the paisley upholstery of the chair.

Edward Frazer

This is my second portrait of Ed, the first was fifteen years ago. I’m glad to see that I’m braver in my work now. Blue and white stripes combined with red and gold flowers would not have occurred to me then. I love them together here and I think it works beautifully.

Curtis Bashaw

Curtis’s arm makes a strong diagonal across the portrait, which is really powerful. Almost unnoticed, his shadow gives the portrait real depth.

US Ambassador Robert Tuttle

This portrait hangs at the U.S. Embassy in London so it had to have a fairly conventional pose. I livened it up by using colours that ‘zing’ together — the yellow chair took some courage, and it has worked.

Cherry and Frank

The gentle way that Frank has placed his hands on Cherry’s arms says it all. I really like the way the blocks of red, green and purple are working together here.

Sir William Castell

I used strong graphic shapes within this portrait to give it power, and the stripy tie works brilliantly bang in the middle.