Well Kent

These are the paintings from an exhibition in the Harbour Arts Centre in Irvine in 2007. They were commissioned by North Ayrshire Council to be shown at the relaunch of the centre after the rebuild.

The people were chosen for various reasons; a popular face in the community, a strong character, an important local figure etc. A major consideration for the exhibition was the importance of variety. Variety of age groups, types, occupations.

The head paintings represent people who use local libraries. Librarians were asked to take photographs of willing clients. Sitters were then chosen from the collated material and a series of paintings were produced to complement the larger works in the show.

The idea and the commission came from Jo Leviten, Arts Development Manager at NAC. My right hand man in the project was Jim Collins, who persuaded the sitters to have their portraits painted and he managed and organized all the work and prep for the libraries. See Jim's work here