Description

Full length, frontal portrait of a cricketer, with blond hair, wearing whites and tossing a ball. Cricket pitch and stands of the Rose Bowl, Hampshire, England in the background.

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Rush: 'This was an incredibly exciting commission that put my work firmly into the public eye. It also took me deep into the world of Cricket and indeed to the other side of the world. Having already painted David Cull, the Real Tennis Professional for Marylebone Cricket Club, I was entrusted with their big, high profile commission of 2005, to hang at Lord’s. Shane Warne was considered such an important player that he was chosen to be depicted while still playing the game at the highest level. Marylebone Cricket Club, Shane and I launched the portrait in the Long Room at Lord’s in June 2005 to huge press acclaim. The image was reproduced in every single national UK newspaper and went all over the world in TV and press items. I went to Australia in January 2006 to sign a series of limited edition prints of the portrait with Shane, and was given the most wonderful hospitality by the Australian Cricket Board. This commission has been so much fun and I am very grateful to everyone at Marylebone Cricket Club who was part of it. They have been fabulous clients and I have made some great friendships. The moment I heard that I was to paint him I had a very strong idea of how the portrait should be. I knew his reputation as a formidable and strategic bowler and saw the portrait as if from the batsman’s point of view. I depicted the sun directly overhead, giving me powerful shadows and hooded eyes so that there was a feeling of "Gunfight at the OK Corral". This sense of menace would instil such trepidation in the batsman that the wicket would be psychologically lost before Shane had even bowled. By cropping the image slightly tighter on the left, I was able to give the feeling of movement as if Shane is actually striding towards us, moving from side to side in of our field of vision, and not static within the centre of it. Other aspects worked beautifully in my favour. The contrast of the red ball against the green grass was powerful and the mowing stripes in the pitch leading us into the centre of the figure help to make this a very strong and striking work'.