Can you paint a javelin thrower?

So what do you get for your lovely wife that’s very original and unique when they are a brilliant athelete? A picture of them in action was the answer.

Commissioned to produce an artwork in the style of another artist, Fletcher Sibthorp who had originally started working in sports and took his love of movement into painting dancers. This made the research interesting and provided with several photographs of the lady in action and some video extracts it made the prepatory sketches easy.

The life drawing sessions I had been doing made working out the muscle groups and limb angles much easier. The difficulty was trying to capture the point of plant … where unfortunately the head would have been much further back and hidden more behind the throwing arm.

It has been an enjoyable commission, on a much smaller scale than I would usually work. The colours were warm and the movement had to be implied in the background.

Well we hope to get away with artistic licence and a little interpretation.