This is a portrait commissioned by Andy Corley, which he asked me to do as quickly as I could. In the circumstances, I chose acrylic, and from a combination of sketches and photographs - it was difficult for him to sit for me in person.
He was happy with it; and perhaps I learned why he'd wanted it quickly, because some time after it was completed, he was found dead in his flat. He had wanted something to be remembered by.
A pity, then, that his landlord or family, I'm not sure which, threw it into a skip when the flat was cleared. I know no more than that - it's just possible, though I think unlikely, that someone retrieved it. But the fact is that it can no longer be found - so its destruction is the most likely outcome; something that meant a lot to Andy would, you'd have thought, mean something to those who were closest to him. Maybe they weren't as close as he'd thought.
I'll do another version, out of respect for him. By the way, I know it's not a Rembrandt: but it IS what he wanted. That should have counted for something, shouldn't it?
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