Ever since I moved to Wantage in Oxfordshire 20 years ago, I’ve always felt some kind of connection to the statue of King Alfred the Great which takes pride of place in the town’s Market Place. No one ever knew what King Alfred looked like, so the statue is really of Colonel Lloyd Lindsay aka Lord Wantage.
For the last 20 years, I haven’t been able to find a local artist, apart from Stuart Roper, who had drawn, sketched, or painted the King Alfred Statue from the front. All the art I saw of the statue was from the back view. So I decided to take this task on and I studied the statue for many years. I produced a 3 layer Lino cut print which can be found on this website, in whichever colours you request.
During lockdown in early 2020, we invested in an iPad and Apple Pencil and I took up digital painting. After a few months learning how to work the painting apps, the King Alfred Statue was fully digitally painted. This image is the first of many King Alfred images I plan to produce.
The statue has so much details carved into it’s surface, that I find it fascinating. I’ve study the statue for many years and plan to keep on doing so. He’s a good source of reference for drawing from.