For as long as I can remember Freddie Mercury has been a huge part of the musical soundtrack that is my life. At a young age I remember my Mum blasting Queen in our family room and I always loved it.
Although I didn't grow up in the 'prime' time of 80's where I could truly live the Freddie and Queen experience.. I have always felt a strong connection to the music and to this day Queen is my go to music for a Saturday night boogie, and often my music of choice when painting or drawing.
Recently I was lucky enough to attend Queen in concert here in Adelaide, with Adam Lambert as the lead singer.. dont even get me started on Adam Lambert (be still my beating heart!) Words cant even describe how unbelievably amazing it was! I can only imagine how breathtaking it would have been to see them with Freddie.
So here fired up my love for the music all over again, and inspired me to capture the man himself through a painting. Luckily I had a week of annual leave from work, which gave me the time to experiment with a medium I had never used before.. oil paints.
It took me a while to get used to the medium, which is very much different to what I had been used to with acrylic paints. I loved the fact that I could stop and start without the paint drying and having to start over with the layers. This allowed me to work on the painting over a number of days.. the longest in fact that I have ever spent on one painting!
Naturally I played queen throughout the whole process.. I'm sure my partner and housemate became quite sick of hearing the same music over and over again. But 20 hours later I finished the painting and it would have to be one of my favourite pieces to date, as well as being one of the most relaxing paintings to paint!
I had no plans as to whether I was painting Freddie to keep for myself or whether I had intentions of selling him. I have put him up for sale on my online store for any Queen lover to purchase so that I can share the love. For the meantime he resides in my living room where I can appreciate him everyday and take in the man who became a legend.