Christina BlacklawsPresident of the Law Society22 x 29 inches
Charles Dance13 x 9 inchesLondon
Jeanne Stainer38 x 24 inchesLondon
Kevin Ching18 x 19 inchesHong Kong
Olivia Williams16 x 10 inchesLondon
Shane Warne46 x 29 inchesLondon
Tracey Chang24 x 16 inchesLondon
Will Riccio24 x 16 inchesLondon
Marcelle and Sally21 x 22 inchesLos Angeles
Sam Rush21 x 29 inchesLondon
John Studzinski16 x 10 inchesLondon
Elizabeth Philion36 x 44 inchesLondon
Ian14 x 14 inchesLondon
Sunil Mittal30 x 42 inchesDelhi
Isaac, Charles and Raphael6 feet x 4 feetToronto
Dr Prathap Reddy40 x 47 inchesChennai
Richard Jordan26 x 22 inchesLondon
Ben Lucas14 x 10 inches
Ajit Gulabchand48 x 40 inchesMumbai
Edward Frazer29 x 31 inchesLondon
Curtis Bashaw40 x 32 inchesNew York
US Ambassador Robert Tuttle47 x 36 inchesLondon
Cherry and Frank42 x 55 inchesHong Kong
Sir William Castell34 x 32 inchesLondon
Christina Blacklaws
Christina was such an amazing woman to paint. She has been an extraordinary force for good in her career, passionate and ground-breaking advocate for access to justice for all. And yet she is also gentle, kind and fun.
It was really important to me to portray these seemingly contrasting qualities in her portrait. I love the colours too, I think they work really well together and they suit her and the portrait.
Charles Dance
Charles and I made a short test film for a TV program that involved me painting this portrait. It was really fun to do.
Half way through the painting I changed the background from blue to red, it really works, It gives him a gravitas that suits him.
Jeanne is so elegant, I set her in her London home with these magnificent reds surrounding her. There is a portrait of Richard III in the National Portrait Gallery by an unknown artist that uses red and black in this way – and I love it – it’s so rich and brave. Jeanne can really carry it off.
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, and I love it. I call this portrait ‘Kevin Ching and His Magnificent Arm’.
Olivia Williams
A lovely time in Olivia’s live to paint her. She’s just at that brief stage where both the freshness and the simplicity of her childhood is combining with the adventure of young adulthood. With so much yet to come. I think she will be so glad that we caught this time in her life.
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 fifteen minutes of fame.
I knew exactly how I wanted to paint Shane; I had heard of his fearsome reputation as a spin bowler with the batsmen never able to judge the trajectory of his ball. So I set the portrait in full noon-day sun which made his eyes shadowed and quite menacing and we can just glimpse in them that he has a cunning plan. I set him slightly to the left which gives the viewer the feeling that he is actually moving toward us. And the red ball with it’s powerful shadow is absolutely hero right next to his face.
He was actually a very sweet and gentle man. He was held up at the gate to at my studio complex when he came for a portrait sitting because he was suddenly surrounded by every cricket enthusiast within a half mile radius. I found him thirty minutes later still at the gate, generously signing autographs and chatting to everyone.
Tracey Chang
Tracey lives in Shanghai and she came to the studio in London. We were sitting at my dining table downstairs just chatting when I saw that the soft daylight coming from the terrace was lighting her exquisitely. The way her shawl was draping and mirroring the pleats in her hat was lovely—and the combination of the colours, the blue with the pop of red in her lips, was stunning. A wonderful image of this beautiful woman was just sitting in front of me. I grabbed my good camera and took my reference photographs for this portrait before anything changed.
Will Riccio
Will is very relaxed and he leaned like this as we talked, it was so him I wanted to keep the area around his head clear and used brickwork in orangey browns to contrast with the blue of his jumper and to tone with his face. By drawing the bricks going into a corner behind his head the mortar lines lead us into his face which emphasises it’s importance.
Marcelle and Sally
These little girls are very sweet; However I really didn’t want to make a cute portrait. The vibrant and beautiful contrasting colours turquoise and fuchsia, with such a strong diagonal shape gave me the vitality I wanted.
Sam Rush
Sam is my brother — This portrait shows Sam exactly as we all know him -just about to say something very funny. It’s great to have in the family. I painted it as a present for our father Peter Rush, and when he died it went to our mother’s home. Sam and his family will eventually have it. He will probably be so elderly that he will appreciate this reminder of how handsome he has been.
John Studzinski
John is a very formal man but I wanted to portray the softness that I could sense. It is there in his eyes and I took it into the folds in his shirt and kept the colours soft and peaceful by using just two, coral and grey.
Elizabeth Philion
I love getting the textures in my painting exactly right, linen folds and creases exactly as linen does, silk reflecting light and fur absorbing it.
It’s important to surround a subject with the fabrics they use, it’s a big part of their personality – and I love the challenge.
Ian
What can I say? this is exactly like him.
Sunil Mittal
This is a powerful portrait of a powerful man, it’s almost mono-chrome which keeps it sharp. The open and relaxed way that he is he sitting and the silver jars behind him gave me a strong diagonal shape. These aspects when combined like this exude the confidence and strength that I was looking for.
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 backwards and Isaac at the top leaning forward, so that all of their faces are exactly the same size.
It is also a painting of three’s, Three boys, and two triangles, one made by the boy’s faces and one by their bodies and the stair post.
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. Orange and black unusual and dynamic together are working brilliantly here.
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. He exudes confidence and strength in this position and yet it is entirely him. 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, a wonderful and important commission. It had to have a fairly formal pose. I livened it up by using colours that ‘zing’ together — the yellow chair took some courage, and it has worked brilliantly.
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
Sir William was the Chairman of the Wellcome Trust and it was a huge honour to be asked to paint his portrait for them. They wanted something of the Wellcome Trust to be included in the portrait, but I didn’t want to add any props. Their logo fitted the space well and by using slightly different tones of the same blue I was able to incorporate it so that it actually contributes to the strength of the portrait.
“In the portraits Fanny pulls something extraordinary out of her subjects. And in the quiet portraits, her subjects pull something extraordinary out of her.”
The Portraits are traditional portraits in that they show the full face of the subject and are painted with fastidious attention.
The Quiet Portraits are subtle sidelong glimpses of a subject. Painted spontaneously, they are smaller than the Portraits.
The Portraits
Humanity is my subject; it has always fascinated me; we homo sapiens are masters at perceiving wordless communication. I have subliminally honed and heightened this intrinsic sensitivity in me, and in every face I can instinctively see the best of who a person really is, and their beauty.
This gift enables me to portray real communication from my portrait to the viewer. And not just from the face — a huge part of our recognisable personality is in the way that we hold ourselves. I simply watch my subjects to see what they do naturally, decide how to use it, and then I paint it.
It is so rewarding to know that my work will be hanging on walls for centuries as treasured family heirlooms. My subjects will be known by, and be part of their families and their descendants’ lives, stretching far into the future.
Visit the Studio
The Studio is very near the American Embassy in Nine Elms, London. Please contact me and come and visit, have a cup of tea and see what’s on the easel.