Simon Thomas Braiden's portrait painting

Girl at a Table (Lucy)

Simon Thomas Braiden, born in Manchester in 1971, is a self-taught artist whose main influences are early Flemish painting and 20th Century Modern Realist painting. The first independent exhibition of his work was held at the Medici Gallery, Cork Street, in 2013. The picture above was selected for the BP Portrait Award this year as were the next two paintings, in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

Portrait of a Girl (Becky)

Ian

The picture below is what Simon describes as "in some formal sense an antecedent" to Girl at a Table (Lucy).

Adolescent Girl at a Table

This final painting, meanwhile, was acquired by The Groucho Club for their permanent collection in 2018.

Gemma

Simon's website is here, and here is the virtual space that you can enter to visit this year's BP Portrait Award. We heartily recommend it.