This is an expressive, pop art painting of John Wayne, The Duke, based on a cover of Life Magazine from 1965 The surface of the paint is impasto, with bold brushwork. As with most of my works in the last few years, I'm interested in rendering a neat image - in this case a photograph with text - in a more chaotic, painterly, energetic way. The face is painted reasonably close to the way it was in the photograph. but the shirt and red scarf are much freer, just a few fast dashes and areas of colour. The face is painted in Payne's Grey, over a layer of Prussian Blue, and the dark blue still comes through in places. It's a dynamic reinterpretation of a 20th century icon of design.

Please note that the sides of the canvas are painted, and it is ready to hang without needing to be framed.