Exhibited at National Portrait Gallery London 1989

"It was while studying Fine Art at De Montfort University that I realized I was passionate about the classical figurative tradition in painting.

I did two smaller sketches for this work originally, trying out different compositions and I finally settled on this composition and large canvas size 9 x 6ft. I stole the poses from two older paintings by Courbet and Manet. I got my fine art friends to pose and as a visual joke, I put myself in the painting twice – at the easel on the left and sitting at the end of table on the right with a false moustache on. Its a reference to the old group school photographs - in the days of film - with a double exposure where a joker runs to the other end of the line up to get in the scene again. In the painting I painted myself painting a still life I set up at college that included a skull, a dolls head, and a cutout of Sean Connery. On the left is my guitar - a Maton Supreme Electric 777 circa 1962 bought by my Dad for me in a guitar shop in Birkenhead in the eighties. In my graduation year 1989 - I had one of my paintings exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery. 'The Artists Studio' was a very large 9 by 6ft oil on canvas. The setting was my studio at college in Lower Brown Street. " - Christian Furr