An award-winning artist is on the hunt for elderly gentlemen to join a former Lancaster Bomber rear gunner and a man who fought at Dunkirk as the subjects of his latest painting.

Morgan Penn, whose work has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, is searching for men older than 75 to be the subject of his next work, set in a garden shed but with an unexpected twist.

Mr Penn said he wants nine elderly gentlemen hollering and gesticulating while betting on a snail race, in a scene reminiscent of the “Russian Roulette” sequence in the 1978 film The Deer Hunter.

He said: “People would expect them to just potter around the garden looking very genteel but I want them in a shed hollering and being lively betting on a snail’s race.

“They are all gambling and shouting and screaming.

“It will be called It’s a Snail’s Pace in Twickenham.”

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Mr Penn's The Critics

The artist, who lives in Holmesdale Road, Teddington, has two men already interested in the project, both of whom fought in World War II.

He said part of his inspiration for the painting was a story broken by this newspaper in which a working machine gun was found in the home of an elderly woman, who it transpired worked as a spy in the immediate aftermath of the war.

Mr Penn added: “People might expect these men to be genteel and just pottering around the garden, but this isn’t just some dotty old guy.

“They have taken on the Germans, been bombed by the Stukas.

“Their stories will form a big part of the project; when you see the painting it will make you smile, and when you hear the stories you will gasp.”

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Mr Penn's painting Ladies! featured Sara Burn Edwards, actress Nadine Hanwell, Sally Cockburn, actress and producer Cheryl Kennedy, Gilly Hughes, author Sandra Hempel and Ms Scoble

Mr Penn contacted the Richmond and Twickenham Times in August 2015 about his mission to assemble a group of local women for a painting, entitled Ladies!

Teri Anne Scoble, of North Lane, Teddington, an actress who competed in Sky Arts’ portrait of the year competition in 2014, saw the story, contacted Mr Penn and helped assemble a group for the painting, which he completed in February 2016.

Mr Penn said he is looking for seven more men for It’s a Snail’s Pace in Twickenham. If you are interested in posing in a short photoshoot for the project, contact him on morgan.penn@ntlworld.com or call the Richmond and Twickenham Times on 0208722 6326.