Description
His Masters Voice – Sam Toft
Doris listens. She always listens. Against a background of bold stripes — inspired, Sam tells us, by a favourite stripey scarf from her early days — Doris is the picture of loyal attention. Sam originally titled this piece Her Mustard's Voice, a knowing nod to a very famous phrase, because Doris is, of course, a girl. Grumpy, portly, and utterly devoted.
What makes this picture particularly special is the history behind it. Doris was there long before dear lady Violet came along to keep Ernest company. She was Ernest's first and most faithful companion — the original Mustard sidekick, present from the very beginning of Sam's world. Violet may have the headscarf, but Doris has seniority.
This open edition mounted miniature print is presented in an antique white mount measuring 24×30cm, with an approximate image size of 12×17cm — sized to fit a standard metric frame.
Sam's 'Meet the Mustards' collection centres on Ernest Hemingway Mustard — part-time Hurricane Predictor and Professional Tuneless Hummer — and his dear lady wife Violet. They live in a not-so-damp flat on the Brighton/Hove border with Doris, their grumpy and rather portly Jack Russell Terrier. Along the Prom they have gathered a wonderful circle of friends: the beautiful Audrey (could she be Ms Hepburn reborn as a sheep?), Horace Duck, and the lovely Rover, a melancholy goldfish with tunnel vision and a good heart. Using mixed media — pencil, oil pastels, coloured inks and her own idiomatic techniques — Sam depicts a seaside world of faded ice-cream colours where the breeze is always blowing and life is utterly delicious.
The Braithwaite Gallery has been lucky enough to work with Sam for a very long time. She sometimes comes to York for exhibitions, sometimes just to say hello, and she has always been wonderfully generous with her time and talent. In 2020 she created ‘Looking After Each Other’ in memory of Jake Braithwaite, helping us raise £5,000 for mental health charity Mind. The gallery and its artists have since gone on to raise almost £19,000 for PAPYRUS, a charity focused on the prevention of suicide in the young.
🖼 Framing — prints are framed to order in our gallery workshop — we can only frame this print if the Mounted version is currently in stock. If the Mounted variant shows as unavailable, the Framed option cannot be fulfilled. Please contact us before ordering if you are unsure. Our favourite frame for this print is Small Cube Oak.
Glazed items are shipped via courier on a fragile service — unfortunately this means framed items are excluded from any of our UK shipping offers for mounted prints. See our Shipping Policy for full details.
Approximate Measurements
- Mount size: 24×30cm
- Approximate image size: 12×17cm
© Sam Toft