Garry Shead’s Artist and Muse series began in 1999, and brings together two enduring interests, the erotic female figure and the traditions of European painting. The works depict artists with their models, often in studios, drawing on the example of painters including Rembrandt, Velázquez and Goya. Shead combines these historical references with his own distinctive figures and compositions, placing the relationship between artist and model at the centre of the paintings.

The series was closely connected to Shead’s relationship with Hungarian sculptor Judit Englert. Judit was an artist in her own right, and her influence on Shead extended beyond providing a subject for his paintings. He credited her with changing the direction of his career and teaching him much about composition. In the Artist and Muse paintings, Shead often casts himself in the role of the artist and Judit as the model, so the Muse series is personal as well as art-historical. Through Judit, he explores the connection between erotic attraction, companionship and artistic creation.

The paintings vary considerably in their arrangements. Some show the artist observing or measuring his model, while others bring the two figures into closer physical contact. The studio becomes a setting in which looking, posing and the act of painting are closely connected. The model is both the subject of the artist’s attention and the source of his inspiration.