The Mayor’s Portrait.
As part of Professional Practice study in year 5, I negotiated my first commission to paint a portrait of the Mayor of Ipswich, Councillor Hamil Clarke. This was my first portrait and it offered an opportunity to work in collaboration with the Mayor and Ipswich Borough Council and is my most significant project to date.
I was able to meet the Mayor in his chambers at Ipswich Town Hall where we discussed what the format might be. I tried to make him feel relaxed and he warmed to my vision of an informal portrait of him as a man, rather than a stock image of him in the mayoral robes. I prepared a number of sketches which were emailed for the Mayor’s approval, but no comments came forward. I therefore progressed with my own vision of him nearing the end of his tenure with robes cast aside behind him, thus giving narrative to the work.
I referred to artists that had painted portraits of black males and was impressed by the work of Jonathan Yeo, as shown below. Because of the Mayor’s busy diary, there were no sittings and only one photo session was possible. Working from photos proved to be restrictive and I decided to begin with a freehand sketch on the canvas in an attempt to replicate the feeling of a sitting. I painted in oil and acrylic on a 90cm x 70cm canvas, and the work took approximately 200 hours to complete, and was presented to the Mayor at Ipswich Town Hall on 21st May 2014. As a business contract, the collaboration was successful, but I was less than satisfied with the likeness of the image. I was pleased that I captured the Mayor’s character, and the conceptual element of narrating his retirement. It was however very disappointing to learn that, after so much effort, I was not allowed to present the work for assessment at UCS.
Below: Jonathan Yeo’s portraits:
Below: My photographs and work in progress.
Year 5 Show.
However, other work in year 5 proved to be equally significant in my journey towards artistic “Identity” and the images attached show a style that I am keen to develop further.
The fishermen, entitled Aldeburgh Fog1 was painted in enamel on 1 meter square aluminium composite board and is the first of a series I intend to produce in 2015.
The figurative painting entitled The Abyss is painted in acrylic on an 80cm x 60cm canvas and will feature in a future series of figurative work.
I have referred to the work of Andy Warhol, Allen Jones, Gary Hume and Julian Opie, and examples of their work are shown below.
The printed images and colours of Opie and Warhol have influenced my painting and I have adapted this as elements of abstraction in my painting. The work of Hume and Jones has also given me inspiration to use colour and alternative grounds for my work and Jone’s abstracted figurative paintings showing movement and colour have been particularly inspiring.
Below: My paintings and work in progress.
