A former banker, Nasser Azam, has painted a series of works, apparently in homage to Francis Bacon, in zero-gravity conditions on a training plane for cosmonauts.

Pakistan-born artist Nasser Azam painted two triptychs while weightless on a Russian parabolic airplane.

Azam, 45, a self-styled "performance painter", made two triptychs paying tribute to the celebrated British artist, during the three-hour flight over Russia.

Last November one of the three-panelled works sold at auction in New York for $332,500 (£228,000).

The other goes on display at a gallery dedicated to his work in County Hall in central London.

Azam claimed that working in anti-gravity conditions helped him produce pieces of "disembodied figures floating in pictorial space" that mirrored Bacon's work.

The cheery artist said he did not share the celebrated British painter's dark temperament, and with good reason.

Last June he quit his day job, as Merrill Lynch's chief operating officer for Europe, Africa and the Middle East, after 23 years at the firm to concentrate on painting.

Perhaps he saw the turbulence coming.

"The week after I left all hell broke lose," he said.

Bacon's work is characterised by its brutal and stark examination of human pain. One of his works, Triptych (1976), sold for $86.3 million (£59 million) in New York last year, setting a world record for a contemporary art work at auction.

Azam said falling through the air at terminal velocity helped him to "go outside my comfort zone" which inspired him.

He denied it was a simple publicity stunt: "Once a person actually sees the work, and sees the way I paint, they will understand that it's not done as a gimmick."

But he admitted the bulk of the work was done on the ground. He only added what he called "the expressionistic scribbles", painted using oil sticks to minimise the mess, during the 30-second bursts of anti-gravity he experienced as the plane dived.

He said painting in zero-gravity was nonetheless messy and he could not avoid getting paint on his Alexander McQueen-designed space-suit.

"The cosmonauts loved it," said the British artist, "I was certainly the most fashionable on board."