In the 1930s Gerald Leslie Brockhurst became one of the most sought after portrait painters. 🖼️

This painting of Margaret Sweeney, Duchess of Argyll, and ones like it, represented a fashionable blending of past with present, a modern expression of traditional artistic values.

I did not just share this. 🤫

Bartolomeo Manfredi, ‘Apollo and Marsyas’ (1616-20)

It’s very heartening to see how Ripley incorporated the absolute jewel that is classical Italian painting & architecture so well into the visual storytelling. I do hope more people come to realise elegance and noir go exceptionally well together. 😈

This is basically me in my studio I feel personally attacked 💀💀💀

To add to this, some more demanding clients run on a very tight schedule, and their initial & revision requests are… specific. (E.g. We want the robe battante in this painting but change this bit to a diff. pattern/design) I really wonder how prompters cope with all that.

Anton Chekhov, as painted by Osip Braz (left) & Nikolay Chekhov (right).

Very delighted to hear these sportsmen portraits I painted for the Iowa Magazine last year are selected for American Illustration 43, which means they get to be in a nice hardcover annual and I get to go to a celebratory party in November :)

2/2 Sly little look from this angel drummer by Filippino Lippi in Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Rome.

《十二神将立像 迷企羅（伐折羅）》

8世紀中頃・奈良時代
塑造・漆箔
新薬師寺・奈良
撮影：小川晴暘（1894–1960）
出典：『小川晴暘と奈良飛鳥園のあゆみ』（飛鳥園・奈良県万葉文化振興財団編、2010）

Very lucky to have had a pretty good seat to see ‘The Motive and the Cue’ back in January. Mr M. G.’s Gielgud was truly top-hole. Also the décor in Noël Coward Theatre is quite Beardsley-eque so I was doubly pleased :D

As one of my ruthless former painting masters puts it… ‘Are you here to paint, or show off your sweet style? Put on a *beep*ing smock.’ 🙃

Sir Thomas Lawrence was born otd in 1769.
One of the things I noted from visiting his works at the NG is the extremely assured manner he puts in the highlights of the eye. I can see these tiny dots from across the room… (included a random George IV for a better 16:9 crop 😅)

... These 10/10 Victorian hairstyles though??

A very young Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Just received a newsletter from my agency stating that an increasing number of clients are including clauses that forbid the use of GenAI in their contracts so artists have to be cautious. I’m so delighted to hear it. Seems like a very heartening message.