The first face I chose, was that of an old lady, and, at first, my aim was to reproduce exactly what I saw in the picture, onto the page in front of me, but soon, that got tedious as I could not add to the picture, nor take from it. Then I realised that in the process of copying her physical image, I had mentally been deciding on the type of personality she possessed and the quality of life she had experienced. I gave her dreams, ambitions, fears, hopes and a history, and in doing so, I gave her a life where none had previously existed. This transformed her from something I felt compelled to paint into something I wanted to paint. I wanted to capture her on paper so that she may live forever two-dimensionally – the same concept used by Shakespeare in his sonnet, "Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day" and Edmund Spencer in his poem, "One day I wrote her name upon the sand".

’m not too sure what it was exactly that first lured my attention to this old lady, or why I decided to paint her. Perhaps it was the many wrinkles that so intricately pattern her weary face like cobwebs of memories that intrigued me, or maybe, it could even have been the silver gentleness of her tangled hair trapped under the control of her shawl that was so attention demanding, but perhaps, even more that, it was the eyes that so fascinated me – her stare from which no one can escape, but beyond and behind her cold stare rests something more: pain? regret? rejection? denial? It has always been said that the eye is the window to the soul, but with a window, one can easily draw the curtains, preventing the outer world from looking in. The shadow cast over her left eye, gives more the impression of a hole through which all can enter.No curtain can be drawn, nor blind pulled down. No choice can be made about who or even what is allowed to enter, leaving her vulnerable and exposed, and even though it is she who is the victim of our gaze, we too, are the victims of hers.

Painting

  Her stare alone breaks down every barrier we construct, every mask we put on and every coat of paint we apply to prevent our true selves from being seen. Therefore, what lies between the viewer and the subject is complete honesty – all fakeness removed.

I was not as concerned with capturing reality exactly as it existed in the picture I was copying, as I was with the old lady. Van Gogh was responsible for some of the most beautiful portraits ever painted, and in his paintings, the beauty lies not in the accuracy or the reproduction of reality onto paper, but in the personality of the subject and the soul that is so clearly evident behind the eyes. So I changed my brushstroke to a less realistic one to give a rougher texture (especially with the Levi baby).

One of the reasons that  I chose the Levi baby as my next painting was that is contrasted with the old lady. The two paintings together, show the first and final stages of life, and the inevitability of growing older. Life is filled with rhythm, in fact life itself, is one long rhythmic dance filled with a constant pattern: we’re born, we grow, we age and we die, and within this inevitable rhythm, lies smaller rhythms and patterns which cannot be broken: the hours start at one and go to twelve, where they immediately return to one again, maintaining their consistency. Days of the week - Monday , Tuesday ,Wednesday ... and the months of the year - January, February , March... are all smaller patterns found in the bigger one of life. Routine , consistency and rhythm are all evident in life and begin as a child.

The scariest thing is perhaps the fact that this rhythm within the tune of life can never be broken. Why do we fear the inevitability of consistency? Is it because it gives a voice to the reality that we have no control over it? We , as mere mortals , so not have the power to stop time or delay death. Perhaps the most frightening thing I've ever heard was that from the second we are born, we begin to die, and the fact that we cannot change it leaves us feeling helpless.

Another reason for choosing the Levi baby, was because a young child is , most probably, the purest stage of life. They so not yet know life's game, nor have they experienced the fears, pain, tears or solitude which hide in the corners of reality. A child still holds close his innocence and is therefore at his most vulnerable stage of life.It is at this point that society creeps in to influence

It teaches the child the 'right' way to live which is not always as right as it should be. In doing so, society steals away his innocence and individuality, replacing it instead with a new personality, rules by which to live and boundaries by which to dream.

In the Levi baby , I still saw it's innocence, it's individuality and uniqueness. Through his eyes, I caught a glimpse of the simplicity of life - life in its purest essence without the confusion and complexities. I saw , too , his ignorance of life's plan for him and his ability to turn his back on the rhythm and routine of life. Although he, like everybody else, is powerless when it comes to pulling the rhythm from the orbit of its' existence, he is still young enough to ignore it.

While painting this face, my aim was not to reproduce the smile again , but to explore it to the very depths of its existence, and in the process, I asked myself questions , such as why and how it appeared on the face of this man - what was the cause? How far exactly does the effects of the smile spread? To the eyes , the forehead , the cheeks - in fact , the whole face is illuminated by the simple contractions of the muscles around the mouth , but it spreads much further than that too. A smile costs not a cent , and yet enriches those who receive tot. Not only does it transform the giver, but the receiver too.

In the next picture ( the Panasonic advertisement) the two subjects contrast with each other completely - in age , gender and race. A white, male adult and a black, female child share the emotion of joy. Their difference are confined to the exterior and therefore insignificant. The message lies in the fact that although they may be different, they are still able to experience the same emotions and share this feeling of extreme joy which is so clearly evident. No matter how different one person may be from another, there will always be similarities because emotions and feelings know no barriers. They crawl their way into the hearts of people of all cultures, races, ages, genders and upbringings.

It was the almost psychotic gaze of the eyes, the unusual angle of the face and the secret - holding shadows that lured me to this last picture of the Hunters' Gold advert.

While the Panasonic ad explores quite obviously the emotion of joy /happiness , this pictures' emotion is not quite as evident. However , it goes without saying, that whatever the emotion , it is in the other extreme : a negative emotion , and the subject is a victim of this emotion. He is engulfed by shadow in which , perhaps, secrets are hidden. The expression on his face is one that we would expect to find on the face of the victim being stalked by a vicious killer, or perhaps even the vicious killer himself.

Leanne Johansson