WHEN YOU CAN'T SAY IT - CREATE IT!
Speaking of her approach to capturing portraits Phyllis said, “To try and capture the inner personality of a person in portraiture is for me more important than merely showing how a person looks on the outside. In creating a portrait I am forced to make decisions about the identity of my subjects."
"My belief is that it is possible for me to make some decisions about the identity of a person by looking at the colour and texture of the clothes that the person wears, the way they style their hair, the care they take to present their face, the music they listen to and the appliances they possess. In addition, their body language and their opinions and attitudes expressed in conversation also helps me to make decisions about the person’s character. I hope some of this information I gather about a person is revealed in my portrait of that person.”
Lucian Freud is one of the greatest influences on my portrait works. Lucian Freud draws and paints from life. Although I am painting my subjects’ likeness with the aid of photographs I still find his subject matter and his technique interesting. I like his work because of the way he uses paint to express the flesh and bones of the face and because the faces are in close-up you can see some crevices, concavities and blood vessels in detail. This makes it easier for me to observe his oil painting technique."