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He Paid For Her Bus

from £2,500.00

He Paid for Her Bus is a large-scale pink painting depicting a boy and a sparrow. The work explores adolescence as a period of inner growth and emerging independence. The sparrow functions as a metaphor for the idiom,’ spread your wings’, echoing the subject’s transition toward autonomy.

The boy’s head is painted disproportionately larger than his body to heighten the presence of his skinhead and to foreground an aggressive attitude often read onto his appearance. This distortion amplifies the tension between how he is perceived and who he reveals himself to be. The painting is structured around visual and conceptual dichotomies: the use of pink in relation to a hoodie-wearing teenager; the fragile bird positioned against the image of a skinhead; and the title itself, which suggests tenderness and moral awareness in contrast to the subject’s outward appearance.

The subject is a real person from my life, depicted as he appears. The title refers to a specific moment in which he paid for a girl’s bus fare when she was in a vulnerable situation. Through this work, I aim to represent youth with honesty and complexity, resisting stereotypes and allowing softness, kindness, and contradiction to coexist.

Finish:

He Paid for Her Bus is a large-scale pink painting depicting a boy and a sparrow. The work explores adolescence as a period of inner growth and emerging independence. The sparrow functions as a metaphor for the idiom,’ spread your wings’, echoing the subject’s transition toward autonomy.

The boy’s head is painted disproportionately larger than his body to heighten the presence of his skinhead and to foreground an aggressive attitude often read onto his appearance. This distortion amplifies the tension between how he is perceived and who he reveals himself to be. The painting is structured around visual and conceptual dichotomies: the use of pink in relation to a hoodie-wearing teenager; the fragile bird positioned against the image of a skinhead; and the title itself, which suggests tenderness and moral awareness in contrast to the subject’s outward appearance.

The subject is a real person from my life, depicted as he appears. The title refers to a specific moment in which he paid for a girl’s bus fare when she was in a vulnerable situation. Through this work, I aim to represent youth with honesty and complexity, resisting stereotypes and allowing softness, kindness, and contradiction to coexist.

  • Medium: oil paint on canvas

  • Dimensions: 150cm x 95cm

  • I sign the canvas on the front, at the bottom.

  • All paintings come ready to hang.

  • You may purchase this painting unframed, or with a tray frame at an additional cost. The tray frame is a wooden frame made from FSC certified Obeche wood, and is waxed with an antique oak finish. It does not contain glass, it allows the painting to ‘float’ within a wooden frame.

  • Free shipping

  • This painting is painted on canvas. The canvas is stretched on a stretcher. For delivery, the painting is packaged between sheets of plywood. A Phillips, crosshead screwdriver will be needed to uncrate the painting. The painting will be insured to the value of the artwork. I am able to ship all artworks worldwide. Artworks are dispatched within 10 days of purchase and I will update you with relevant delivery dates as much as possible

  • I am more than happy to welcome you for a studio visit. My studio is in Abingdon, near Oxford, UK.

  • Please get in touch if you have any special requests or questions relating to this painting.