Why was I being asked “Can you paint a javelin thrower?”. Well what else do you get for your wife that’s very original and unique when they are a brilliant athelete? A picture of them in action of course was the answer.

Commissioned to produce an artwork reflective of the style of another artist, Fletcher Sibthorp. He had originally started working in sports and took his love of movement into painting dancers. This made the research interesting. I was  provided with several photographs of the lady in action and some video extracts. That made the preparatory 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 I hope we get away with it and the subject is happy with a little interpretation.