When I photographed the young man in today’s featured image I immediately thought of David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, although by that time Bowie had already morphed to the Thin White Duke. He was a musician I always liked – except for the Major Tom phase – for his intelligence, his risk taking and his embrace of change. His death this January, then, was saddening although comforted by the album he released chronicling his last journey, called Blackstar.

( Music here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kszLwBaC4Sw)

Chuck Conelly, the great American painter, is now working on a series of Bowie portraits, the first one (below) painted shortly after the death of the musician. Conelly had withdrawn from public view for a quarter of a century after major conflicts within the art- and gallery world, living as a recluse in Philadelphia. Only last year did he start to show work again. He had met with Bowie some 30 years ago; I assume the portrait was not simply from memory. It surely captures some of the luminosity surrounding the artist. Here is a short intro to the painter: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2997525/The-return-Chuck-Connelly-America-s-greatest-modern-artist-spiralled-control-upsetting-Scorcese-Saatchi-1980s-New-York-sober-selling.html