Taking it as Red

'Red, Blue and Tan'
acrylic on canvas
24 x 30 x 3cm

A subject that lends himself to a vivid colour portrait - the controversial Malaysian owner of Cardiff City Football Club, Vincent Tan. He changed the colour of the Bluebirds' football strip from blue to ...erm... red because it was a much more positive colour in his home country. His investment helped Cardiff reach the Premiership league for the first time in 50 years, so no-one should be complaining!

I like the colour red, so when it comes to portraying him on canvas I'm not complaining either. This one has been submitted to The Gate Arts Centre annual open exhibition and will be on view from 17th October to 15th November 2013. In the event that one of Mr Tan's friends, family or staff are wandering the streets of Roath in the next few weeks, I would suggest a version of this painting will look superb on the wall of the football club boardroom!

United Colours of...

While I try and work out how to migrate my website to a new host, keeping one eye on a BBC documentary about painter Jonathan Yeo, I thought it was time I uploaded my latest portrait ...of the great Nelson Mandela.

This was started on Mandela's 95th birthday and finished about 10 days ago. Mandela was a flamboyant, mischievous and larger than life character who deserves to be remembered in that way, rather than a weak hospitalised old man. The Kisbyism treatment suits him well, if I don't say so myself.

In fact I feel like I need to break all my recent Kisbyism rules to date and, dare I say, paint a very large version. Artists generally paint things on a grand scale to add artificial importance to their work (art students in particular will do this in the weeks before their final assessments). But even from a distance of 60cm this small image of Madiba begins to break up into crude brushstrokes and a larger size would not only befit such a great man, it would also give the opportunity to make the strokes of paint into objects with their own tangible presence.

In the meantime I'm being encouraged to produce T-shirts of this image, by everyone from my close relatives to the gas meter reader!

'United Colours of Madiba'
acrylic on canvas
30 x 40 x 1.5cm

Portrait March 2012

The Fig Tree

acrylic on canvas

30 x 40cm

This portrait is essentially what I was trying to achieve with my earlier self-portrait. The background colour (orange) remains a key component of the finished work.

I'm very pleased with it!

Self Portrait January 2012

30cm x 40cm

acrylic on canvas

Homage to Rembrandt

I've always liked Rembrandt's moody self portraits, which seem to reflect a humerous honesty of middle age. So I've attempted something similar of myself, with mixed results. It is still missing something. My intended hunch-shouldered grimace has got lost somewhere and the vibrant colours maybe contradict the grumpy pout.

I'll probably write this one off and start anew!