Sultan's artistic order for his yacht

12:00pm Wednesday 29th November 2006

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OIL paintings by a Dorset artist will adorn the walls of the Sultan of Oman's royal yacht.

Impressionist painter Mike Bowman, of Dorchester Road, Stratton, will paint at least six images of Italian villas for Qaboos Bin Said's luxury vessel.

It will be the second time Mr Bowman, who used to be the head of art at Dorchester's Thomas Hardye School, will have created artwork commissioned by the Sultan.

Several years ago Mr Bowman, 63, designed a coat of arms that was used on the buttons of clothes bought by the Sultan from Dorchester-based tailor Baileys.

Mr Bowman's latest artistic commission will be displayed on the 3.2 tonne, Italian-built al Said yacht - which has a helicopter pad and is reputedly worth $39 million.

London-based art commissioner Greg Page-Turner approached Mr Bowman on the Sultan's behalf after seeing examples of his work - done in the grand manner' artistic style - on his website.

Mr Bowman will paint at least six paintings of Italian villas but will need to use his artistic licence to meet the Sultan's approval.

Mr Bowman said: "I will paint the villa Mansi, which is in Tuscany, the villa Melzi in Como and the villa D'Este near Rome.

"But I'm not allowed to have any nudes in the painting - which is a pain because the gardens of these villas are filled with them. I also can't put any Christian churches into them.

"I will just have to be a bit careful about what I put on to the canvas."

Mr Bowman has gathered a variety of sketches and photographs of these villas and their surrounding grounds.

He will use these images to help him complete the paintings in his Stratton studio but may need to fly out to Muscat in order to paint one of the images the Sultan wants.

Mr Bowman, who is originally from Bournemouth, came to Dorchester in 1963 to begin teaching art at Hardye's School. He quit as head of art at the school in 1997 to pursue a career as a professional artist.

He lives in Stratton with his wife Julia with whom he has three daughters He aims to finish the commission for the Sultan by August next year.

Mr Bowman also recently won £1,000 when his painting Reflections, River Sarthe,' won the Chairman's Purchase Prize at the 2006 Discerning Eye exhibition at the Mall Gallery, London.