Walsall artist to paint former London Mayor Ken Livingstone
His paintings of politicians, comedians and authors have been displayed across the globe.
And now Andrew Tift has unveiled his latest project - a portrait of former London Mayor Ken Livingstone.
Mr Tift's work has gone on show at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
It was commissioned after Tift won the 2006 BP Portrait Award for his painting of Kitty Godley, first wife of the artist Lucian Freud.
Mr Tift, who has worked as a professional artist for 20 years from his home in Birmingham Road, Walsall, has built up a reputation for getting the personality of his subject across.
Born in Great Wyrley, he went from the village's High School to Stafford College of Art to do a foundation course in art and drawing, and then to Birmingham Art College, and a BA Hons and MA with distinction in illustration.
His portrait of Kitty Godley, spread over three paintings, 'changed his life', he says, and got him commissioned to paint Tony Benn.
From that came a commission to paint Neil and Glenys Kinnock for the National Portrait Gallery.
For his latest work, Mr Tift had a series of sittings with the former Mayor and they decided to set the portrait in his back garden in London on a summer day.
It is painted in acrylic on canvas and took 11 months to complete.
He said: "I wanted it to be a relaxed and informal depiction. One of the things Ken said to me during the sittings was that he always tried to appear calm during interviews and debates and never lost his cool so I wanted his pose to be calm, as if the viewer was in conversation with him and he was listening. I liked the idea of setting him in his garden rather than against architectural symbols of London which he is associated with because it was his little patch of London and I think he is very much perceived as a down to earth figure."
Mr Tift travelled to Japan in 2008 with wife Anne and did a series of portraits in haunts frequented by the Yazuka, the Japanese mafia, which formed the basis of another London exhibition.
His work at the NPG also led to an invitation from the Andreeva gallery, in Santa Fe, to travel around New Mexico, painting the characters he found there.
As well as bikers, Vietnam Veterans, native Americans, cowboys and hippies, he painted Pulitzer Prize-winner Cormac McCarthy, and scientist Murray Gellman.
