Amit Ghose - The Boy Who Played Cricket
L to R - Gail Reid, Amit Ghose, Dr Nicola Stock, Dr Maia Thornton
The highlight of my engagement as the appointed artist for the Appearance Matters 10 international conference (click here for my blog about the full conference exhibition) was to unveil this commissioned portrait of influencer Amit Ghose.
A panellist at the conference, Amit was actively involved throughout the portrait process, as were the conference hosting Centre for Appearance Research team.
The livestream portrait planning conversation was an opportunity for Amit, Dr Thornton, and myself to explore his experience around being seen, how he chooses to reveal/conceal his visible difference, which element(s) of his life story might feature, and our hopes for the portrait.
Preparatory sketches exploring the option to maximise/minimise Amit’s visible difference
Amit describes how his cricketing ability facilitated social acceptance amongst his peers at school. He mentions how, when he plucked up the courage to ask to bowl, he went from being “Amit the boy with the funny face, to Amit the boy who plays cricket”.
1m x 1.5m oil on canvas
During the planning discussions we quickly agreed he would not be smiling, so the viewer is met with the critical gaze that Amit has when looking at himself in the mirror. Amit described how he habitually engineers photography, both public (eg asking his wedding videographer to stay to the right) and privately in the mirror, to minimise his visible difference.
Designing Amit’s portrait
Portraiture is an opportunity to amplify elements of a person’s story. It requires openness and curiosity from both subject and artist. Here are some of the stages that we went through in the journey of this portrait:
Preliminary sketches
Amit and I met over zoom, and I showed him a few sketches I’d drawn from stills from his YouTube channel. Sketches are a great tool to give your subject confidence in your ability to ‘get’ them, both personally and visually. They helped communicate options for the portrait, and helped me get to know his physical characteristics. These original sketches are available to buy here.
Live discussion and sketching
As Amit and I both love live media, we convinced CAR it was a good plan to discuss and plan the portrait LIVE!
Dr Maia Thornton (researcher, and host on the Appearance Matters Podcast) hosted a 3-way discussion & sketching livestream. We covered Amit’s thoughts about being painted, his reactions to the sketches, and our hopes for how the portrait might be received:
Click this image to watch the livestream recording
Composition ideas, sketched and discussed during the livestream:
During the conversation we answered viewers’ questions, and I sketched these composition ideas. These informed our discussion of options towards the end of the broadcast. It was great to be able to reflect afterwards on viewers’ thoughts in the livestream chat, and the video comments.
Proposal and references
Following the livestream I proposed to Amit that the portrait show him holding both the cricket ball and his prosthetic eye towards the viewer. I sent a photo of myself with a disc and an apple to illustrate, together with some advice about lighting. Amit was enthusiastic about the concept - due to scoliosis (associated with Neurofibromatosis), Amit can no longer play, but he still enjoys trips to Edgbaston and still has his cricket ball.
Amit kindly provided several reference photos, from which I produced a final composition sketch for approval by CAR.
Given the choice between hoodie and shirt, Amit elected to be painted wearing a shirt - a great compromise between the hoodie and his trademark jacket! The geometric shirt pattern was really fun to paint, and added an extra layer of interest. Unlike me, Amit knows how to hold a cricket ball properly.
Working from photos, and convincingly stitching them together, presents several challenges. My experience painting from life and an appreciation of human anatomy helped.
I used supplementary photos of myself and my son Leon (who helped with the livestream) to check the arm anatomy and how the cuff of a shirt would hang. He was struggling with a bad hair decision made during an exuberant night out, so I like to think the photoshoot was a good distraction from his regrets!
As you can see, we agreed to portray Amit with his visible difference clearly evident, juxtaposing his prosthetic eye and the cricket ball. Amit talks on his social media about his prosthetic eye (affectionately referred to by his friends as “the teabag”). He describes that he puts it on before answering the door. To me it represents the ‘dressing’ of the self, for the benefit of a society who aren’t as OK as they could be with visible difference, and the lengths to which people with a visible difference go to, to accommodate that.
Early on in the painting process, I noticed how unsettling the prosthetic eye looked, and so made sure as it progressed that it is also ‘locked onto’ the viewer.
