Where does my interest in expressive portraits come from?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been somewhat obsessed with painting/drawing faces. Throughout the past decade or so I’ve naturally become more gestural/expressive in the way I develop them. When I first started out way back, my ambition was to create ‘perfect’ (or as close to as possible) images that precisely resembled a sitter or subject. But on reflection, I therefore question whether I was then creating true ‘art’. It took a lot of life experience (rather than art school) to begin to understand what art really was/is and that over time naturally transformed my ambition from precise imagery to a desire to create expressive portraits that only I can make (unique to myself and my life)… that I could never make again.
How has my modern approach to creating expressive portraits progressed my work?
Creating in the way that I do today, to me, ensures that each piece of work is uniquely one-off to that specific moment – and that moment alone. I’m only content with calling my expressive portraits (or drawing/however the ‘thing’ manifests in physicality) an ‘original’ if I believe I’ve achieved this to a significant degree. I feel that this installs something in their presence that allows them to feel alive, forever.
How do I anticipate my approach to expressive portraits progressing further going forward?
I find it interesting that if you really observe my expressive portraits (most of them at least), the eyes don’t really look like eyes, the nose doesn’t really resemble a nose… etc. But still, the human mind acknowledges it as a person. Perhaps someone you might know, or have known. I guess you can take this notion a step further with the simplicity of the ‘smiley face’ symbol ‘:)’. How we, on a global level, naturally register this as a face is pretty fascinating to me. I guess I’m instinctively working towards trying to create something almost as simple as that; whilst capturing the essence of the everyday person (plural). Formlessness is a powerful thing/word if I really think about it. Although I’m talking about simplicity here, everything I have/am goes into creating these expressive portraits… It’s a battle far from simple. But the result (and process) makes me feel. I also hope that it makes the viewer feel something.
