A portrait of storyteller Neil Gaiman : Good Icons are Good Omens

One of the world’s most treasured storytellers of our time, author Neil Gaiman (American Gods, Neverwhere, Coraline), has been immortalised in a collection of startling portraits exhibited as his epic six part series Good Omens was released worldwide on Amazon Prime Video. As befits a celebrated weaver of myths and magic and pioneer of the graphic novel (Gaiman came to prominence as the writer of the genre defining Sandman opus), these portraits are anything but ordinary, echoing this cultural colossus’ singular vision.

Artist Lorna May Wadsworth is an iconographer of our age who has produced seminal images of Margaret Thatcher, David Blunkett and Rowan Williams. Like her vast Thatcher, she has captured Gaiman ‘god sized’, as a 2 metre high head in her piece ‘Big Neil’. This scale befits a writer who’s every work seems to touch upon deities, as any viewer of Amazon Prime’s adaptation of his novel American Gods will testify. Casting Neil as the omnipotent narrator writ large also perhaps echoes the adoration in which he is held by his fans; an ardent fervour usually associated with rockstars, not those who sit atop the New York Times bestseller list.

These fans will surely react with wonder to her piece ‘The Book of Neil Gaiman’, a life size rendering of the author’s head, the front of it and the back, manifested within the form of something almost book shaped. It is a piece which seems both ancient relic and other worldly mystery. Indeed time is contained and condensed within this dark, dense tome which will never open. The portrait, oil pigment suspended in layers of unbleached wax, is crafted upon a piece of prehistoric bog oak, which lay forgotten within the cold dark earth for thousands of years. This is a technique which Wadsworth created specifically to portray the author, echoing the earliest portraits in history, the Fayum wax portraits of the dead of Ancient Egypt, which were painted to adorn the carapaces of mummies, examples of which can be found in the British Museum.

The weekend before the exhibition at Philip Mould Gallery, Lorna’s artwork was set at the heart of a five-floor immersive experience and exhibition disguised as a Soho bookshop inspired by the Amazon Original series Good Omens, to celebrate its launch date. Fans of the book may recognise the bookshop ‘A.Z. Fell and Co.’ which appeared in Greek Street in Soho, with the show’s 1934 Bentley Derby Coupe parked outside. Modelled on the character Aziraphale’s (Sheen) own bookshop hideout, the unassuming facade was easily overlooked by those not in-the-know. However on entry it quickly became clear that this was no ordinary bookshop.

Taking over a Victorian town house in the heart of Soho, fans were able to literally step right into the weird and wonderful world of Good Omens. Adapted from the fan favourite 1990 novel by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, the six-part series is an hilarious story of the world hurtling towards the apocalypse, with only the unlikely duo of an angel (Michael Sheen) and a demon (David Tennant) to stop it.

Guests were given the chance to explore immersive set replicas, take on an escape room challenge starting in a recreation of hell and explore a rich array of props and costumes from the show. At the heart of the bookshop stretching across an entire storey was the Good Icons exhibition, showcasing the original artwork and on-set drawings of acclaimed portrait artist Lorna May Wadsworth.

Gaiman invited Wadsworth on set as the artist-in-residence during filming in November 2017. While on-set, Wadsworth managed to catch-up with Michael Sheen and David Tennant in-between filming for portrait sittings, from which she created her Good Icons series. These pieces continue to develop the technique she created for her portrait of Gaiman of painting between layers of brushed on hot sun bleached beeswax.

Directly after this immersive experience, the portraits of Neil were exhibited at old master gallery Philip Mould & Co on Pall Mall, among Holbeins and Van Dycks, from 4 - 18 June 2019.