Cherry Hood Simon Tedeschi unplugged

It was a picture of acclaimed young Australian pianist Simon Tedeschi that first caught Cherry Hood’s eye. She went to one of his concerts and then asked him to sit for her.

‘Although I don’t normally do portrait likenesses of people, I usually paint boys or adolescent males,’ she says. ‘Simon is only 20 and he has blue eyes and the look that suits the way I make images. The eyes are always the focus of my paintings. I want them to reflect the gaze of the viewer and I prefer the way paler eyes both reflect light and have a differentiation between the pupil and iris. When I met him, it turned out that he is particularly empathetic, easy going and very sensitive artistically. He saw my work and he understood what I was doing.’

Hood decided to paint him topless because, she says, ‘he is always portrayed in formal clothes and often with a piano as well. Images of him are usually more about his playing than about him as a person let alone him as a sensual body. Also, at that time I was finishing a series of portraits of boys. Simon saw these works and agreed to pose for me in the same way.

‘It was quite easy to get him because he has strong characteristics. I think it does look like him, if not at his most rested. He keeps up a rigorous international performance schedule and lives between Sydney and London. He was suffering jet lag or in “post concert letdown” when he sat for this painting. When he last saw the work he said, “Love the whiskers. Remind me to stop over in Bangkok next time.”’

Hood attained a Master of Visual Art at Sydney College of the Arts in 2000. She was a finalist in the 2001 Archibald Prize with her watercolour of art lecturer Matthÿs Gerber. This portrait of Simon Tedeschi is now in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra.