It was decided.

The theme would be masks and disguises.

My sitters were given complete choice over their masks.

What would they choose?

An enhancement to their physical appearance or a disguise?

Are they peacocks or cuckoos?

The masks soon became a bargaining tool to bribe people into letting me take photographs of them. A visible forcefield between them and the camera.

On a rare scale, more akin to snapshots taken 50 years ago, there is nothing included in the paintings to detract you from the subject, and nowhere for them to gaze, but straight back at you.

I paint portraits because I love looking at people.

Working in a shop I have to patrol the door, to observe the customers, whilst making snap judgements on their shop-lifting potential.

These hours pass slowly as I people-watch outside passers-by.

People make thousands of first impressions on me daily and that’s what my portraits are – First impressions on you.

I’ve given you a certain amount of information about these individuals and you have the opportunity to judge them.

There is a story behind each choice of mask, some of them very personal, but I’ll let you be the author.

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