Sir David Frost painted by Harry Pye and Emma Coleman

Sir David Frost (1939 - 2013) once observed that "Television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your living room by people you wouldn't have in your home." I liked the fact he did cheesy TV shows like, Through The Keyhole but of course his big achievement was to interview 8 British Prime Ministers and 7 U.S presidents.

In 2015 I decided to celebrate my 42nd birthday by collaborating 42 different friends. Emma Coleman and I have known each other a long, long time. She contributed to two shows I curated ("Four By Four" and "100 Mothers"). I found a cartoon of Richard Nixon by Philip Guston. I had an idea we could somehow turn the small b&w cartoon into a large full colour painting. Emma talked about the Frost/Nixon film and suggested we also painted David Frost. I said we could have 2 separate paintings and then she came up with the idea of the Frost and Nixon both being on a TV screen. Below is my first attempt at painting Frostie.

Emma took away that painting and painting I'd done of Nixon and gave them a bit of T.L.C.

The paintings were included in "Life of Pye" (my exhibition of 42 collaborations) Part One of the show took place at The Angus-Hughes Gallery in Hackney. Part Two took place at Studio One Gallery,in Wandsworth Plain, SW18.

Last week I couldn't resist giving the Frost painting a few final tweaks. I changed the black TV set to burnt Sienna, added the Pye logo and volume, gave Sir David some teeth, and some ears etc. I also gave the painting a new title, Television Man which comes from a song by Talking Heads which features the lyrics, "When the world crashes in into my living room, Television man made me what I am." 'Television Man' will appear in a group show taking place in September called, You Know More Than I Know. More news soon