Phoebe Bridgers Scream

Phoebe Bridgers is one of my favourite artists of recent years. For me, she’s a little bit of Elliott Smith and a little bit of Jeff Buckley. What’s not to love? I’ve wanted to paint her for a long time.

After a recent festival, I overheard people saying that if you want to make it as an artist, you have to paint photorealistically. It made me think about how often artists are told they’d be more successful if they just changed who they are.

I’m sure Phoebe Bridgers has heard the same thing throughout her career. That she’d be bigger if she danced more, made more commercial pop music, or fitted into what the industry expected. Instead, she stayed true to herself, and that’s exactly why so many people connect with her.

It also made me think of David Bowie, who spent his entire career refusing to be put in a box. Every time people thought they knew who he was, he reinvented himself.

That became the concept behind this painting.

I wanted to paint Phoebe through every style I’ve explored over the years. Inspired by the fragmented design of Bowie’s ‘Best Of Bowie’ album cover, each square of Phoebe’s face is painted in a in a different style from my own artistic journey, comic book, pop art, photorealism, two tone and semi abstract.  Every section represents a different version of me as an artist, all coming together to create one portrait.

Without artists like Bowie constantly reinventing themselves, or musicians like Phoebe Bridgers refusing to become what others expected, the creative world would be a much blander place.