Oil on panel

71.2 x 39.2 cm

‘Troy’ is part of my original ‘Beautiful Boys’ series, which I began after graduating from The Royal Drawing School. I decided I wanted to challenge the art historical cliche of a male artist painting a hot female muse in a state of undress, and went around London summoning up the courage to go up to handsome strangers and ask them to sit for me. I had also fallen hopelessly in unrequited love with a beautiful young man I’d painted, and I decided the only way to get over him was to paint boys that were more beautiful. 

And so this is how one day I came to paint Troy in my studio whilst a thunderstorm raged outside. From Moldova, he was quite a wild party boy and had scratches all over his back from the night before. I remember he fell asleep on my sofa.