Oil on canvas board 18" x 14"
I've been intending to do this for ages, for over a year in fact. It is a surprise present for my mate, and mountain marathon partner, Dave on his 50th (today 28/1/12), which is why I couldn't publish it until now. I nearly started it last year thinking his 50th was a year earlier. Good job I checked on Facebook. Ironically I left it until the last minute having only painted it last weekend. I had to do a touch up during the week to make sure it actually was recognisable as him. I suppose that makes it my first miniature portrait as well.
This is hopefully the first of many fell and mountain running paintings. The combination of runners and mountains makes (in my mind anyway) a brilliant combination of scenery and action.
I'd managed to find a number of photos of Dave on the internet, largely by slogging through the photos of events that I knew he'd entered. This one is on the Really Wild Boar fell race near Sedbergh. There were better action shots with better views but this one attracted me because of the contrast offered by the shadows and sunlit areas. The composition is quite nice too. I'm quite pleased with the looseness of the shadowed area on the right. He didn't really have race number 50. I thought it appropriate to take a bit of artistic license and change it.
All in all I'm a happy bunny with this. Happy Birthday Dave!
P.S. If any runners have found their way onto this page you may be interested in my running blog.
