ok, before someone else starts a thread, i might as well post it myself, new tony blair portrait...

[nipersvest]

get the rotten eggs out, although please be kind, dh painted this!

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/dec/20/tony-blair-portrait-national-portrait-gallery-alastair-adams

opps, linky here

the comments are rather amusing

My only criticism of it is that it is flattering!

Your DH painted that? Wow, he is very talented.

Great portrait. Reminds me of good Lucien Freud's.

That is a great portrait, it really captures him and his charisma, which is often lost in a painting.

It's a great portrait but he still looks rather like an evil hobbit

Wow that is good, he's captured him very well. I was expecting a 'statesmen' sort of portrait but that's really, really good.

You must be very proud of him

It is a very good painting although Tony is starting to resemble the ferengi in Star Trek.

"It looks as though he is half way into his transformation to Gollum."

PMSL

I think that's excellent - the look in his eyes, the slightly-gritted teeth all give a great impression of the man 'behind the picture' - your DH is very talented

Very good picture. Very lifelike and captures the tight mouth and his charm!

Great picture, he has really captured his personality. I hate TB by the way.

My DD aspires to be a portrait painter!

dh is laughing at some of the tweets appearing about it, it's been photoshopped already!

Wow. That's good, shame about the subject though -murdering war criminal profiteering bastard-- And on the link you can't see his horns.

The eyes are fantastic. They are the window to the soul and what a soul. Looking at it, it is so lifelike, powerful and penetrating, it is as if he is in the room with you, but fortunately it is a painting and not his real presence.

It's very like him.

I'm not sure if I prefer paintings that have a bit more of an individual 'style' to them - iykwim - rather than being so almost photographic - that's not a criticism, it's excellent, but all it says to me is 'This is Tony Blair', not 'This is what I think about Tony Blair'.

Does that make sense? (talking as someone who paints people too)

Maybe that was the brief in which case it's superb. Well it is anyway.

I just find it hard to 'like', well maybe that's par for the course with TB

dh painted 4 portraits in total, this is the one the npg selected.

'all it says to me is 'This is Tony Blair', not 'This is what I think about Tony Blair'.

Does that make sense? (talking as someone who paints people too)'

I disagree. It captures the real essence of Blair which a photograph can never capture. It shows Blair's soul and only an artist can capture that, not a camera.

Read the comments about the portrait in the Guardian. Those comments would never appear for a photograph of Blair, because the painting makes us feel and see something which remains hidden in a mere photograph.

Rofl @ Tony is starting to resemble the ferengi in Star Trek.

Your dh is v talented though. Has he ever painted you OP?

Well done to your DH, it's really good. I actually think it's bang-on, though I can't describe why.

he didn't come to our house, dh went to his.

Remember how the Tories used a 'demon eyes' image of Blair under the heading 'New Labour, New Danger' in an election campaign.

Imagine if they instead had that painting of Blair looking down on the public from every billboard in the land. They would have won a landslide. Never has the phrase

"A picture tells a thousand words"

been more true, and no thousand words can compare to what can be seen in an instant by looking at that picture.

Masterpiece!

I don't think it's photographic at all