http://www.painters-online.co.uk artistMay 2020 21
The way I painted Steve was using
two weakish colours to explore the
form, and then use big, strong black
outlines to make a definite statement,
finally paying attention to the bigger
shapes by shifting the colour/tone
relationships between the figure and
the background. I made sure my canvas
was well-stretched and primed, and I
had the same paper, paint and brushes
I normally use. I have a big toolbox that
I inherited from my friend Jason Bowyer,
which I filled with paint, mediums,
brushes, rags, a wooden palette, jars
and newspaper, a Stanley knife and
masking tape. I also put in my painting
overalls and my studio shoes.
First impressions
When we arrived I had entered my
highest level of anxiety, cold and
shivering slightly. Anna pulled up in
the loading bay, and I saw a group of
people in the big entrance, with lots
of camera gear, gantries and tripods
and black boxes all over the place.
Two young women helped unload my
box and my portfolio. Anna and Angela
drove off. I was left alone, in the faintly
embarrassing position of having an
entourage, carrying my equipment into
the building.
They took me to a waiting area,
where two or three others were already
gathered, and offered me breakfast.
More contestants arrived, and the room
began to feel cramped, people with
clipboards asking us questions, others
fixing microphones to our clothing, and
all the time instructions were being
relayed to the stage managers and
technicians from elsewhere, by radio.
An order came to go downstairs and
film us arriving. I suppose catching all
nine contestants arriving at various
times on our own offered no great
drama or interest. It took a while until
we were all recorded satisfactorily, and
then came another herding, this time
into what I came to see as ‘the main
arena’. We were there for hours, and I
began to look more closely at my fellow
contestants. There was an even mix of
male to female, and a wide range of
ages, a man and a woman older than
me. There was a chap from Northern
Ireland who worked as an extra on
Game of Thrones, and the young woman
who I’d walked in with. She had been a
contestant before, and her family were
in the audience..
The painting room seemed huge
and bright to me; I looked quickly to
see where I was positioned, and sureenough, there was Jason’s reassuringly
large toolbox and my portfolio next to
an easel at the edge of a group of two
other workstations.
We were asked to prepare ourselves,
and to let the camera people know if we
were going to do anything ‘interesting’.
It’s hard to know what’s interesting.
The camera people seemed to love
me getting into my overalls and I had
to take off my shoes and put my feet
into my studio shoes several times.
The young woman next to me – she
was actually still at school – didn’t have
much to prepare, just coloured paper
and pencils, although David Treloar,
positioned on the other side of her, was
equally well-supplied as me. We turned
out to have both been at the Royal
Academy Schools. I was very happy to
have found a comrade, even though he
was a rival.The first heat
Then the celebrities arrived. I didn’t
recognise any of them, but I was very
lucky in that the person I had to paint
was Asa Butterworth (above). He was
in The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, which
I had seen, and is now in something
called Sex Education, which I hadn’t. He
was the same age and perhaps buildp Steve Foy Philp, gouache and ink, 221/2 3 153/4in (57 3 40cm) p Asa Butterworth, oil, 391/2 3 291/2in (100 3 75cm)