Artist Talk Magazine - issue 11

engage the viewer on an emotive
level then it really isn’t doing its job.
So over the last few years I have
painted portraits of people who’s
stories and personal journeys are
undeniably worth telling, stories of
unspeakable hardship and suffering.
In 2015 I travelled to Sierra
Leone towards the end of the
Ebola outbreak that decimated
communities in 3 West African
countries. I met, interviewed
and painted 40 people who had
either survived the disease or been
involved with containing it.
They ranged from doctors, street
sweepers and ambulance drivers to
laboratory technicians, nurses and
grave diggers.
Of course the ‘correct’ that
I’m talking about transcends
the necessity for an accurately
rendered painting, it requires
something more than that; it
demands an authenticity and
humanity that is often lacking
in painted portraits. This could
manifest itself in the characteristic
tilt of a head or the gleam of an
eye. In other words, I try to add
a small degree of caricature to
my portraits, not so much as to
change the fundamental nature
of the sitter but just enough to
bring to prominence what I find
immediately engaging about a face
when I first see it.
I use the same 6 oil colours for
any painting. These are Cadmium
Red, Lemon Yellow, Burnt Umber,
Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue
and Titanium White. From these
I can mix nearly all of the other
WAITING
colours that I see in the world
around me. I would always rather
find the apposite colour from
mixing rather than directly from a
tube of paint.
I use only 1 brush for any painting,
this is typically a wide, flat bristle
brush that allows me to ‘sculpt’ in
thick paint. I try to break the head
down into its requisite facets and
planes. Further to this the large
brush stops me from adding too
much detail to the portrait rather,
it forces me to reconcile complex
areas such as eyes into the
simplest of terms; 2 or 3 marks of
accurately placed paint can say just
as much as 30 small marks.
There is so much more to a
meaningful portrait than the
visual aesthetic. For me there
needs to be a message that’s being
conveyed. If the painting doesn’t
It was an often brutal and humbling
experience that allowed me to
paint the portraits of individuals
that had endured the unimaginable.
The dignity and bravery that these
people displayed, is something that
I can only hope the portraits that
I painted managed to capture. It
was this feeling of endurance and
ultimately hope that provided the
common thread through the 40
portraits, a commentary on the
power of humanity in the face of
disaster.
CLIFFORD, OUTREACH WORKER,
TOTTENHAM
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