A painter who assembled a team of local ladies to sit for him though this newspaper has completed his latest masterpiece, Ladies!
Morgan Penn, whose work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, told the Richmond and Twickenham Times in August 2015 about his mission to find a group of lively ladies aged over 65 for his next piece.
FROM AUGUST: Portrait artist on the hunt for a group of ladies for his next piece
Teri Anne Scoble, of North Lane, Teddington, an actress who competed in Sky Arts’ portrait of the year competition in 2014, saw the story, contacted Mr Penn and helped assemble a group of women “with a glint in their eye” for the painting.
The group was made up of Arts Richmond president Sara Burn Edwards, actress Nadine Hanwell, Sally Cockburn, actress and producer Cheryl Kennedy, Gilly Hughes, author Sandra Hempel and Ms Scoble.
Mr Penn, who lives in Holmesdale Road, Teddington, said he normally takes about two-and-a-half months to complete a portrait, but he was so focused on this project he completed it in just one month over the Christmas period and the ladies who inspired it were “over the moon” with the end result.
He said: “When you are captured in a portrait you sort of live forever, and hopefully this is the kind of painting that people will see in 200 years’ time and smile at.
The ladies, front row: Sara Burn Edwards, Nadine Hanwell, Sally Cockburn; Back row: Cheryl Kennedy, Gilly Hughes, Teri Anne Scoble and Sandra Hempel
“A lot of portraits can be stiff and stuffy and don’t say very much about the people in them but I think if you look at this you would have a good feeling about what the people in it are like.”
Ms Scoble, who appeared as a conjoined twin alongside her sister Lesley in 1980’s The Elephant Man, said the painting was brilliant and taking part in its creation was a blast.
She said: “We got our old clothes out, the women’s institute outfits and all met up and Morgan took some reference pictures in the garden so it was like a model shoot.
“We had a fabulous time; it was quite exhausting, actually.”
Mr Penn, who hopes to have his latest work hung in the National Portrait Gallery, is on the hunt for a group of older gentlemen who have allotments for his next project, a “Deer Hunter-style snail race.”
He said: “It is going to be these guys screaming and shouting in some allotment shed over a snail race; it’s going to be bedlam.
“I’m planning on using local people for my projects from now on.”
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