 In 1988, the National Portrait Gallery acquired his portraits of miners' leader Arthur Scargill and cricketer Viv Richards.The same year the Marylebone Cricket Club commissioned him to paint the bicentenary game at Lord's Cricket Ground.Although a regular exhibitor in club and group shows, and the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, his first London solo show was not until 1983, when a retrospective was held at Messum's gallery.