Kurt (Tribute to Kurt Cobain) Painting

Kurt (Tribute to Kurt Cobain) is part of a series of individual portraits of my heroes, admirations and inspirations. People I love and admire particularly from my interest in music and popular culture, the pretty and the beautiful, alive and dead. I’m interested in capturing the feeling of beauty and the feeling of presence in a pared-down style; the character and the psyche without all the unnecessary details. I began this artwork in my home studio in the dining room of my Clarendon Park terrace. I started the work in mid October 2019 through till November. It took around a month to complete. Usually I’ll be thinking about a new painting or working on another at the same time. I started by surrounding myself with visuals for reference material, such as photographs in books or on the Internet, Blog articles, Mojo magazines, TV images and newspaper articles. I used a new technique in oil painting for this series, which I found on the Internet. ‘A master class in portraiture with Sam Dalby.’ Using a primed canvas I mixed burnt sienna with white spirit and slapped it on the canvas to make the under painting, leaving it to dry overnight. The first step sounds a little crazy; I mixed a quantity of black oil paint with linseed oil to completely cover the canvas. After the blackout stage, I prepared my palette of colours, mixing a range of flesh tones from light to dark, and then from warm to cool. To begin I used a tissue or cotton bud to rub and remove the black paint from the canvas to the parts of the face where the light falls. In doing so you reveal the burnt sienna under painting. I didn’t use any line work at this stage. Then from my range of skin tones on my prepared palette I worked from the lightest tones to the dark tones, with the black paint influencing my colours. I dabbed my colours on and built up my tonal range. The oil stays pliable for quite a few days! This painting was very spontaneous. I was able to built up the layers very quickly to create an instant likeness. The black background projects the image forward, as do the light yellow tones of his hair. This artwork is a tribute to an iconic artist, the legendary creative force behind Nirvana. I wanted to immortalize in paint a person who has greatly influenced me as an artist, my work and music and the music of a whole nation, he’s a genius and one of the most influential rock musicians in the history of alternative music and without him we wouldn’t have ‘Grunge!”

Painting:Oil on Canvas

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:12 W x 12 H x 0.8 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.