Since beginning to paint, I have enjoyed creating my own celebrity artwork or iconic paintings. These have tended to be based on celebrities whom I admire and generally have a talent – not simply “famous for being famous”. There are many celebrity painters and I always endeavour to bring something different to an iconic painting.
Some of the earlier paintings of “famous faces” were very design-led or graphic in nature. This has changed as the painting styles have developed and this is reflected each year in the celebrity artwork. In the early part of my painting career, my artwork was published in two internationally relased books, “Marilyn in Art” by Roger Taylor and “Diana In Art” by Mem mehmet. These original canvas artworks have taken the form of both oil paintings and acrylic artworks. These original canvas paintings can be viewed in the gallery section.
Debbie Harry drawing - graphite on paper. This original artwork has been in my mind for some time and has finally made it onto paper. One of the first in a new series of pencil drawings with a realistic edge.
This is a miniature John Lennon painting which other than it's size, is created in exactly the same way as larger scale Joe Hendry Original paintings. Quality acrylic paint on deep edged cotton canvas.
Madonna Ciconne painting created over several months in oil on board. this framed Madonna painting is quite an emotive and high impact artwork. I wanted it to have a slight "deco" or twenties feel to it. I endeavour to improve any celebrity paintings which I have created over the years and I find myself quite satisfied with te completed artwork.
Madonna in a big Pop Art graphic style. I designed this artwork in 2004 and brought it to canvas shortly after. There is something very reflective of my Interior Design work in this canvas, and still today, I am proud of this, clean, sharp, often copied art.
Marilyn In Art, the book by Roger G. Taylor which appeared in 2006 was the first book my artwork appeared in. The book featured "To Kiss Marilyn", my first ever Marilyn Monroe paintings.
Although my painting style has developed so much since I painted this large scale canvas, it makes me smile. As I have said elsewhere on this website, there were many artists producing this kind of work in the early to mid noughties.
Like many of my early oil paintings, this was quite a simple painting in that once i had the likeness established, there was not the same layering of paint in the manner that I work today. Still, I think this is an honest example of where my painting was at the time.
I clearly recall painting this marilyn Monroe "pop art" canvas at the end of 2006 and being absolutely terified as it took some confident initial strokes on the canvas.
I decided during my Klimt phase to paint this artwork for a very special lady who is aMarilyn Monroe fan.
Creating a painting of Boy George was great fun and this was added to even more as I wanted to include it in a series of original paintings with a Gustav Klimt influence. I had also been stying tarot cartd art at tthe time and this also influenced botht hte painting content and the title, "Queen Of Swords: King Of Clubs".
At over three feet square, this painting of John Lennon was really quite exciting to work on. The bacground was painted first and the painting was then layered without trying to lose the likeness. Although the Beatles were sligtly before my time, I have a huge respect for what they achieve and the tragedy of John Lennon makes him all the more fascinating.
Debbie Harry and Blondie have long been something of an obsession of mine and I like to experiment with different ways to paint Deborah Harry. This was my first, very graphic and stylised Blondie artwork and the painting created a little bit of a stir at the time, appearing in the Scottish press and in the 5th Anniversary Blondie Review.
Painting Elvis Presley, like painting Marilyn Monroe is frought with dangers. The fear for this artist, is producing an artwork which may be cliched. I approached this canvas in a bold manner with large brushes and much watered down paint. I may visit painting Elvis Presley again at some point but for now this remains one of only two Elvis Presley paintings which I have ever produced.
Looking back, I am struck by the many times that I painted Marilyn Monroe. I definitely have a fascination for the lady and tried to paint her in different ways in order to investigate her features more.
Bombsheel, was a title I had wanted to use for some time in the creation of an original Marilyn artwork. this formed part of a series of paintings which happened over the space of a year or so and looking back, I can see the similarity in the approach to the canvas.
Although painted in acrylic, this Marilyn Monroe painting could just have easily been created in watercolour had it not been for the fact that the canvas was three feet high,
marilyn Monroe painting in a freestyle almost watercolour approach to the canvas. As I have said elsewhere, I try to bring something different to each painting of Marilyn and there always seems to be something different to capture about this celebrity icon.
Grace Jones makes an excellent subject for a painting. I think the woman is quite misunderstood. Not really scary at all but incredibly funny and with a fantastic voice. This oil painting was destined to have a certain look and was an early foray into oil paint after working mainly in acrylic.
This Madonna artwork was painted during an experimental phase when I was experimenting with alternative methods or ways of applying paint to the canvas which were new to me. When i look back at paintings, it's not possible to love everyything produced but I can usually always learn something with hindsight. This is a painting however, which I would be happy to produce some four years on.
I adore Kate Bush and I wanted to paint her in a certain manner which was crisp, sharp and yet had a dreamlike quality to the eyes. The idea was initially to caver the hair area with butterflies but I changed back to the complete opposite idea of having a very busy painting to having a very simple artwork. Kate Bush is a major influence on my art and I still listen to even her older albums in the studio regularly whilst painting.
Marlene Dietrich , Hollywood icon and German film superstar before that had an incredible face and an incredible voice. I don't know if she would have been quite the iconic legend she is had she been filmed in colour. It seems that Dietrich's face was made for the sharp shadows of black and white.
Madonna Ciconne painting in a loose style. This original artwork was based on a cover feature in Cosmopolitan magazine and formed a part of the First major Joe Hendry solo art exhibition in Glasgow in 2007.
This was quite an experimental painting of Marilyn Monroe and was created on a large scale canvas at the same time as I painted Elvis Presley in a similar style. I return to iconic paintings of celebrities every now and again. It is a real contrast to working on landscape paintings but I find that fluctuating between the two is an interesting way for me to paint.
I love painting as you may have gathered but returning to painting the way I did initially bu twith the hindsight of experience is somthing that seems extra special for me. This painting of Madonna was fantastic to create as I had painted a version of it before but wanted to see if I could take it that bit further. I believe that there is a big element of who I really am as aperson and as a painter in this artwork.
I am fascinated by Jack Vettriano and all that has happened to him. I don't particulary like the way that he has been written about in the press, especially in reference to him using art instruction book. This is exactly what a self-taught artist should be doing surely. My painting is a commen ton this.
With the title swimming around in my head, this is a painting that I thought I would like to leave at a certain point without “overcooking” in order that it retains a lightness both in tone and in colour. However, as the painting progressed and I was led by the artwork itself, it became something more contrasting.
