BP Portrait Award 2008 - Exhibitor 2
Second Prize
Amanda Smith at Vincent Avenue
by Simon Davis
Oil on board, 650 x 398mm (25 5/8 x 15 5/8")
© the artist
Simon Davis (b 08.06.1968) for Portrait of Amanda Smith at Vincent Avenue (oil on board, 650 x 398 mm). Simon Davis, who has a background in illustration and design and lives in Worcestershire, was exhibited in the Royal Society of Portrait Painters exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London in 2006 and 2007. For his shortlisted portrait of his friend Amanda Smith, Davis was influenced by a study by Toulouse-Lautrec of his mother. 'I had previously painted a number of closer-in portraits of Amanda,' he says, 'but this time I wanted the composition to have a calm and contemplative feel to it with a lot of space around it.' The sitting took place on a sunny Sunday morning at Amanda's house.