Mike Retter

Retter is the most easily distracted artist I've ever met. Consequently, not much more than a handful are completed in any given year.

He is also the only artist I know of who is so captivated by television that the medium has informed his work; blink and you miss it.Unlike all the other artists who squirrel away preliminary sketches and first daubs and all the rest for posterity, Retter is incapable of this. Each work is a one-off, effectively worth far more than whatever you'll be lucky enough to pay for it.

If, of course, he lets you buy it.

To be moved by a Retter is to buy it; photographs and film do not do them justice, don't even come close, in fact.

The only good news for the collector is that he's become interested in portraits. If you have an interesting face.

If you don't, you're not going to get painted.

You may think this the usual unforgiveable arrogance of the artist; it isn't.

He's just busy. And easily distracted.

Robert Brokenmouth