The Official Portrait of the Bishop of Northampton by Shropshire Based Portrait Painter Simon Taylor

Bishop Peter Doyle Portrait by Simon Taylor

Bishop Peter Doyle

Commissioned in 2006 by the diocese on Northamptonshire on the appointment of Bishop Peter Doyle. This was a prestigious commission which I felt very privileged to be awarded.

This work was produced from one sitting where I spent a morning with Bishop Peter, getting to know him, taking photos and drawing a few sketches. We moved around various rooms of Bishop’s House, and I decided that I wanted to portray him in the library. Bishop Peter is a kindly man, but has a certain strength and steeliness to his character. This comes in part from his family's military background, and indeed he was signed in to Sandhurst when he made the decision to enter the catholic priesthood.

The portrait was painted using acrylics on canvas size 42 by 30 inches and hangs in Bishops House, Northampton, along with portraits of Bishop Peter Doyle's predecessors.