Future Past

‘Future Past’. Oil on linen, life size.

This recent oil portrait was completed in around 12 sittings – the shoulders and shirt being the biggest headache of the whole thing! How far to develop them, how to give the pose some more psychology using form alone and so on.

Detail

I called the painting ‘Future Past’ because I felt it summed up some of the conversations I had with Chris, the sitter. He is a lovely man – interested in what’s around him and engaging.

Always punctual and keeping busy with life modelling all over the south of England, he has found this to be a second career after retiring as a teacher of Modern Languages, and one that was sparked off and encouraged by his late wife – an artist. Talking of these things very much made me think of the paths through life we each take, and of the loss they encompass along the way. All you can do is face forwards and keep on going into the future.