ACOMB artist Gordon Close has two of his pictures hanging in the hallowed halls in which Gainsborough and Reynolds and later Turner and Constable squared up to each other in public.

The Royal Academy selected two of his lithographs for the traditional summer exhibition that has been held at Burlington House without interruption since 1769. The doors are now open to the public and the first swathe of the expected 150,000 to 200,000 visitors have been in to see the thousand or so items on show.

Gordon, who has pursued a successful career in sculpting until now, is particularly delighted because he only began making prints about a year ago.

“I used to do working drawings for my sculptures, but they were rarely, if ever, seen in public,” he said. “Now it’s the drawing side of things that is taking precedence.

“The way I work is very slow, though, so I don’t have a lot of pictures available to show.”

The two limited edition prints the Royal Academy selected are lithographs, made by drawing on limestone with wax crayons and applying ink before printing. Gordon then spends time refining the image, building up the colour and finish with layers of glazes and washes.

The bold figures in the two selected, entitled Pike Hill and A Bird in the Hand, tip a nod to the style of sculpting he favoured – usually classical, life size images of the human form.

“I went down for the Varnishing Day, which was traditionally when the pictures were hung and the artists would do some last minute touching-up.”

The occasion gave Gordon the chance to meet some of the other artists, who had travelled from all points of the compass, and to take part in the traditional procession to St James’s Church in Piccadilly for the annual service of blessing.

The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition runs for another six weeks. Further information is available on the website at: www.royalacademy.org.uk