As I write this back to black is blasting out on iTunes and I have to ask what am I trying to say from making this portrait of the late Ms Winehouse? Well one thing for sure is that I never knew the woman. Yes we all know the lurid tabloid stories and the slow collapse of a tragic genius played out across those pages. We all had our own head shaking moment about such a tragic and yet inevitable loss of life.

But beyond the headline what? This what is perhaps in someway what I have tried to capture with this painting. For me the one thing that I know Amy Winehouse is through her voice. A voice that was as much a product of the abuse it was given than anything else. So perhaps she could never have been Amy Winehouse without the abuse. But this doesn’t answer the question as to what I was trying to say with the painting.

Well I guess the first things I was trying to achieve was a good likeness. Again a likeness of what? The photo I found on the internet? Well no as I developed it before starting to using as a step off point – the treatment meant that the images was less sharp and perhaps that is what I’m saying – we don’t really know any of these celebraties and they are just a bit of a blur. Anyway in so many ways this is nothing like the original image – which I guess is exactly the same relationship the image had with the real Amy Winehouse. Perhaps trying a likeness is impossible anyway.

Whatever I might have been saying I really enjoyed making the painting and I think I’m finished…I think.

Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk