These pictures are pre-Photoshop and were created in 1994/6 as an exploration of texture and deliberate distressing. I used sandpaper, bleach, inks, crackle glaze and Liquitex to achieve the effects that I needed. The picture 'Le Sophiste' was a Kobal award- winning portrait of the composer Georg Kajanus, and was exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery in 1994. It recreates that twilight world of seedy Parisian bars and hookers that Georg memorably sang about with his group Sailor in the '70s.And of course the Devil and the bottle are there on the table to tempt him further. Alfred Hitchcock is back from the dead but not quite all in one piece however. Seated next to him is his bodyguard or his assassin.