The first four months of the year have been spent creating a Self Portrait with Grave Goods (and shaving mirror). It formed the culmination of six years of non stop work which provided the content for my two one man shows at Waterhouse and Dodd, interspersed with one or two portrait commissions. I saw this self portrait, a commission from a Turkish collector, as a chance to reflect on this period and finally dump myself and a collection of redundant props and metaphoric objects in the attic tomb, and seal the entrance.
Michael's portrait of crime fiction writer, P D.James is currently on display in Room 37 at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
This painting was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery in 1996. It has been loaned by the NPG to 10 Downing Street and to the Geffrye Museum. It was also the subject of a Channel 4 television program in 2002.
Michael's portrait of P D James is on loan to an exhibition of British paintings and drawings of English , middle class, urban domestic spaces 1914-2006 at the Geffrye Museum.
The portrait, which is on loan from the National Portrait Gallery, was painted in 1997 in the author's Holland park home. The exhibition which is the third part of a major survey of the genre runs from 16th October 2007 until 4th February 2008
In 2006, Michael was commissioned by the UK Houses of Parliament to paint the then Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, for the House of Lords collection. The reform of the role in 2006 has meant that in effect the painting marks the last in a line of such portraits stretching back to the Norman Conquest. The portrait was unveiled at the house of Lords on July 9th 2007.
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