The Erin Pearson Collection

A private collection · Brisbane

Old Dude
Old Dude

Old Dude

Jonny Arnold

The Work

A close, expressive portrait in pastel, rendered in a muted grey-and-charcoal palette against a soft blue-grey ground. The subject — an older man in a battered cap and singlet — is captured with real physical presence: weathered skin, a direct, slightly wary gaze, every crease and shadow of the face built up in confident, textural strokes. There's real character and a lived-in honesty to the portrait, typical of Arnold's figurative work.

I'd always been taken by Jonny's work, and when I heard he was moving to Australia, I wanted to start building a following for him here before he'd even arrived. Buying into that UK sell-off was part of that — backing him early, and making sure there'd be an audience waiting once he landed. Once he was here, I began showing his work at my studio space in Annerley.

Year
2018
Medium
Pastel on paper
Image size
460 mm x 650 mm
Framed size
655 mm x 855 mm
Catalogue
0015

Provenance

I knew Jonny and his partner Cherie Strong through the business, and had held exhibitions of their work at my first space in Woolloongabba. I bought "Old Dude" in 2019, as part of a sell-off Jonny held in the UK, while he and Cherie were preparing to move to Australia.

Ask about the price, make an offer, or simply ask a question — payment is arranged directly (bank transfer, PayID, or cash).

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Framing

Framed in a simple black shadow box with museum glass — a clean, quiet frame that lets the pastel's texture and tonal work do the talking. The frame itself has history of its own: it once held a Banksy, on loan from a client of mine who collected his work seriously — we'd often swap pieces in and out of frames for him over the years.

About Jonny Arnold

Jonny Arnold is a self-taught contemporary painter originally from Oxfordshire, UK, now based in Queensland, Australia. His artistic roots lie in street art, but over recent years he has turned increasingly toward fine art, focusing on figurative work. He works predominantly in oils and acrylics, and is driven by exploration of movement, light, narrative, and the physicality of paint.