Portrait of Des (Desmond Haughton)

Born in London, Nahem Shoa worked as a graffiti artist before studying at Manchester College of Art. He also trained under Robert Lenkiewicz. More recently, he has exhibited at Hartlepool City Art Gallery, Coventry City Art Gallery and Plymouth City Art Gallery. His work frequently draws on current world affairs, particularly natural and human-made disasters.

The artist recalled painting this portrait of his childhood friend and fellow artist, Desmond Haughton, in London:

‘For me it was the most complete portrait I have ever painted in a single sitting. At the time I was painting many full-length black portraits and nudes from life, which were paintings that involved numerous sittings and often taken up to one year to complete … I was investigating in oil paint all the nuances of colour that there are in all different types of black skin, not dissimilar to the way Lucian Freud or Euan Uglow both explored white skin.’

‘A lot of people when they paint black skin just use brown and umbers and black to mix up black skin. I use an Impressionist palette... I only have blues, greens, purples, reds, yellows and oranges – I have no umber colours [earth pigments] or black.’

Visual description: Des is depicted in a bust-view portrait resting his head on his hand. He is facing away from the viewer to the right. In a blue shirt with the collar undone, Des is looking out of frame, seemingly deep in thought.