The catalogue note by Eamonn Mallie tells us that Basil Blackshaw was not normally given to making double portraits. Graham and Jude was an exception almost by accident. At the heart of Northern Ireland’s art scene Graham and Jude Gingles – he a sculptor and painter, she Blackshaw’s sitter for more than three decades with a doctorate in anthropology – attended a party at the home of Northern Ireland sculptor Bob Sloan in 2001. There Blackshaw executed a quick sketch of his good friends and prevailed on Bob Sloan to take some photographs of the couple. The artist identified the potential in the backdrop of the parallel lines of the venetian blinds sliced down the middle by the two figures. The resulting portrait is lot 88 at Sotheby’s Eclectic online auction which runs to May 18. It is estimated at £15,000-20,000.
