Musician Portraits – Joe Simpson’s paintings of rock stars

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Brandon Flowers

Brandon Flowers

Musician Portraits is a new exhibition from painter Joe Simpson at a pop-up gallery at 16/17 Greek Street, Soho, London W1D 4DR. It runs until 30th October and entry is the grand total of nothing. Here’s Brandon Flowers from The Killers.

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Jack Steadman

Jack Steadman

Here’s Jack Steadman from Bombay Bicycle Club. There are 22 paintings in the series, each created with oil on canvas and sized 60 x 60 cm.

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Ezra Koenig

Ezra Koenig

Ezra Koenig, frontman of Vampire Weekend. Joe approached his favourite musicians from a wide range of musical genres and nationalities to include in the series. Once the subjects agreed to be included in the series, Joe met up with each artist to take original photographs to work from to create an original oil painting.

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Anna Calvi

Anna Calvi

Anna Calvi. Each painting typically takes a little under two weeks to complete.

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Scroobius Pip

Scroobius Pip

Scroobius Pip. Joe said: “I’ve tried to root each painting in a tradition of painted portraiture – each piece has a quiet, still and almost introspective feel to them. I’d tried to capture the way that each person held themselves when I met them, usually I didn’t give the musicians a great deal of direction, or plan how I wanted the piece to turn out.”

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Mark Ronson

Mark Ronson

Mark Ronson. Joe said: “These paintings have a physicality to them that you don’t get with a photograph, the paint has a specific weight and application – you can see layers and brushmarks in the hair and skin tones. I’m really excited to see all the paintings together for the first time.”

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Paloma Faith

Paloma Faith

Paloma Faith. Joe’s paintings have been shown both nationally and internationally, including prestigious venues such as Urbis, Manchester City Art Gallery, Cornerhouse and The House of Commons.

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Damon Gough

Damon Gough

Damon Gough aka Badly Drawn Boy. Joe’s largest exhibition ‘Almost There’ received funding from the Arts Council England and corporate sponsorship from Audio Technica.

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Jade Williams

Jade Williams

Jade Williams aka Sunday Girl.

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Matt Beringer

Matt Beringer

Matt Beringer, frontman of The National. After the exhibition the paintings will be sold. 25% of the sale will be donated to Seeing is Believing – an initiative to tackle avoidable blindness.

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The Guillemots

The Guillemots

The Guillemots‘ frontman Fyfe Dangerfield.

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Maxi Jazz

Maxi Jazz

Maxi Jazz, Faithless. Joe’s portrait of Maxi Jazz has been shortlisted for the prestigious BP Portrait Award 2011.

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The Vaccines

The Vaccines

The VaccinesJustin Young. For more info of the exhibition check www.joe-simpson.co.uk and follow @Joesimpsonart on twitter.

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