How I first got to painting these groups of watercolour portraits started in the second year of my Ba Art and Design course at the University of Bradford, Bradford School of Art, 1996 - 1999. My tutors suggested that I should work in watercolour instead of oil paint and to work in Silk-Screen Printing.

​

Watercolour was a medium that I had not rarely used and I was a very poor amateur with the medium. I finished the course with a body of work that I mostly disliked. After my Degree, in which I received a 2:1, I had no clue what to do and I felt lost. All I knew was that I had plenty of watercolour paper and paint.

After a few weeks from finishing my degree I decided to reiterate portraits, referring from photographs in Fashion Magazines. I chose a small number of photographs and played about with the watercolour. By limiting the difference portraits, I would revisit the same face, slowly taking on a muscle memory while searching for an approach to painting I felt happy with. Once I did feel comfortable with my approach I started to diverge in the photographic references, magazines, newspaper and family photographs I worked on groups of three paintings at a time, working on one while I allowed the other two to dry.

Because the memory of Silk-screen printing was fresh to me I decided to use the different pigments as one would with the separate colour layers in screen printing. Working from lighter colours, Bismuth Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Deep and Quinacridone Magenta to the stronger colour of Cadmium Red Deep and Winsor Blue (Green Shade). I worked from weak, watered down pigment of all the colours and then finished off using over layers of the last two colour layer I would use tissue to mop up the paint. leaving a ghost of the mark. I concentrated on the shape of the facial features in each portrait, allowing for the earlier layers of paint to be loose and sketchy as I got to the layers of Red and Blue I was tightening my lines towards the features of portrayed.

At the early stages of working this way many painting would end up badly executed, but the more I reiterated the portrait the closer I got it tight. The odd painting never worked, but most paintings ended up forming an interesting portrait. I noticed that one portrait alone had nothing much to say, but when I would arrange them into groups, then a conversation started to take place between portraits. Allowing the viewer to read situations within these groups of paintings.

As I slowly built up a number of paintings, I realised that I should aim to paint enough portraits to fill the whole four walls of a room. Where the viewer would enter the space and be confronted by an auditorium of faces starring back at them, placing the viewer in the position of the objectified. Unfortunately I never created enough paintings to fill a decent sized room, but enough to cover a large wall and the next best thing.