Royal Society of Portrait Painters

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  Portrait details:

Andrew James

My twin brother and I have always drawn faces. From the age of 6 or 7 we used to copy Old Master drawings. That interest carried through childhood, which culminated when I was 17 and began to expand to larger projects.
As for the psychological reasons behind why I became interested in portraiture, I think looking at my twin every day had me constantly aware of faces. It was this sort of reflective process that piqued my interest.

Portraiture to me feels like the most immediate, visceral sensation that one has made a connection with another person in an intellectual, artistic sense.
The power of the initial impact of features and things carries over into a private creative space, into a sense of reflection. It has more impact than a reflective thought.

Painting has helped me understand what to plan and what not to plan, and if you want to be creative it’s certainly not about defining all outcomes. The balance between controlling and not controlling is so key.

I try to create works of immediacy and emotional impact that have a de-cluttered, simple directness, which is an expression of my feeling towards life. It sort of supports my whole world outlook — to be organic, self-taught, instinctive and intuitive on one level.
I like to think my work possesses a sense of immediacy and heart and emotion, which is marked strongly against things that aren’t highlighted, such as a heightened finish, or a particular narrative. Hopefully there is a refinement, a subtlety in the emotion without being cluttered by narrative.

Portrait of David Dickinson

• This is an unusual one because it was commissioned for a TV program. The TV studio scenario with lots of cameras and technicians made it an odd, surreal experience. But he was just another face, just another person to try to experience. It was not about being over-awed or under-awed, just taking somebody and sensing them cleanly, removing any sense of grandeur or pretension. People build celebrities up and tend to overlook the fact that they are ordinary people. It’s important to see people clearly and equally. Everybody is significant and should be appreciated.