The front cover illustration of Fixing Antarctica is drawn from a huge hyperrealist portrait of Syd, painted by Tom Macbeth. The original was purchased by Syd’s old school, Hale School in Western Australia. Tom kindly gave me permission to use the portrait as a cover.
Tom is an internationally recognised, multi-award winning, self-taught, Australian artist working in oils. He focuses on photorealistic portraits and has been a finalist in both the prestigious Archibald Prize and it’s associated Salon Des Refuses as well as the Black Swan Prize.
You can see other photographs of Tom painting this portrait of Syd, which he entered in the Archibald Prize competition and see other examples of his work on his website: