Acrylic on canvas, stretched and ready to hang.

Signed on the back.

I’ve been painting these ‘Unpopular Penguins’ for six years now (this is number 539), having a good deal of success with them in galleries and shows. The starting point is the original design of the ‘Penguin classics’ books, transformed and distorted by multiple layers of paint, expressive brushwork, drips and spatters.

This particular one is inspired by the influential art book (and series) Ways of Seeing, which made a huge impact on the way we understand art and culture. I wanted to create a more chaotic and express penguin painting than usual, exploding off the canvas.

The paintings in this series are held in collections around the world, and have been in various art prizes and prominent Australian galleries. Edmund Capon, former director of the Art Gallery of NSW, said of the first painting in this series, ‘an evocative imagining of the familiar Penguin paperback...it was a painting we all liked very much for its rich texture, its sense of memory and its sort of nostalgic humour’

This painting is on stretched canvas, with painted sides, and it is ready to hand without needing framing.

For lovers of art, books, and classic design.