I have loved the stage presence of this amazing singer since childhood. But to paint her mid song ,it is very difficult to capture the right moment. A painting is a frozen moment in time, and if it is portraying a singer mid song, there are lots of disadvantages, especially with someone with such a fantastic expressive face.

 

The research for choosing the very right moment took longer than the painting. This portrays when Shirley Bassey sang Born To Sing Forever at the London Palladium, for a Royal Variety performance. I had to be very careful which image I chose. In actual moving footage, everyone knows how many expressions the singer has, it is part of what gives her that magnificent stage presence. But in a frozen painting, some of these moving expressions, when frozen in a second can look rather manic.

Finally I found the moment on footage of the performance. I captured that lovely curve of the mouth that Shirley is known for, and painted another dress other than the one in the source footage. I never paint anything direct from a photo at face value. Without fail, there are always several sources from which I compose using aspects from different ones, and choosing what to leave in and take out.

I was particularly proud when the Bassey fan club, and the singer herself commented on the photo . Of course she has many paintings of herself, but just the fact that she showed interest in this work was mind blowing as I have always thought she was the most amazing performer.

I was particularly happy with the result of the backlighting of the theatre and how it highlighted the ear, earing and back of the neck. A low key background was perfect to set off this wonderful face and the sequinned whites of the gown.