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Answer key: Unit 6

concentrating like that!’ ‘You’re not like that at all – fair number of portraits that way and it seems to work
you’re looking really serious!’ You see, I did the drawing better.
in front of a mirror as a sort of experiment to see if I Interviewer: And Emily, a new experience for you?
could do a self-portrait from life like Rembrandt or
Emily: Entirely, although as an actress, I’m used to
Dalí or someone, and I found I kept having to move my
directors and colleagues looking at me and being
head, so my hair kept getting in the way and I got quite
highly critical of my work, how I move, and paying very,
frustrated. It took me hours! Still, I’m quite proud of the
very close attention to my performance. In this case the
way my eyes turned out, sort of thoughtful and sincere.
attention was extremely intense right from the outset
and even in my own home it was quite awkward to find
C: I’ve been looking at quite a few self-portraits recently
a way of sitting that I felt happy with, so in the end, as
because this one didn’t turn out at all how I expected.
you can see, I stood. As an actress, I’m quite used to
Most artists look like they’re really concentrating hard
doing so for hours on end, so that was no hardship and
and you don’t catch them smiling much. In this one I
I thought, mistakenly as it turned out, that I’d be able to
look sort of uptight, moody, even a bit aggressive or
daydream my way through the whole process and relax.
perhaps a bit self-conscious. I’d just come back from
holiday and my face was pretty tanned. I found it really Interviewer: Mike, Emily’s portrait was commissioned
hard to capture that tanned look combined with my by the Bristol Theatre Society, but speaking more
fair hair in a black-and-white portrait. I’d like to look generally, why do people commission portraits of
more relaxed, though. themselves?
Mike: There can be any number of reasons. Unlike
3 A approachable, neat, nice to be around, not photos, which are mechanically produced images,
threatening, sincere, thoughtful, unadventurous portraits are an artist’s interpretation of reality, the
B really serious, sincere, thoughtful artist trying to see and present an image of the real
C a bit self-conscious, aggressive, moody, uptight person. They really are, visually, trying to tell the truth
about that person, and in Emily’s case that’s important
because you normally see her in the theatre playing
www.english0905.com
Listening | Part 3 someone else. Speaking more generally, though, if you
visit people’s homes, you’ll often see portraits hanging
2 Suggested underlining over the mantelpiece which have been in the family for
1 Mike painted / in Emily’s home because 2 Emily generations, often with their favourite horse, in front
feel / beginning 3 Mike / main reason / people of their house, or in the library with their books, and by
have their portrait painted 4 Mike / prefer / and large I’d say people have regarded their portraits
sitter in front of him 5 surprised Emily 6 Mike / as status symbols. Not that I’m suggesting that in
personality of the person Emily’s case.

Emily: Although I am very proud of it and where it’s going
3 1 B 2 A 3 C 4 C 5 A 6 D
to hang!
CD 1 Track 16 Interviewer: You don’t paint from photographs, do you,
Mike?
Interviewer: I’m delighted to be talking to artist Mike
Byatt about his new portrait of actress Emily Curran, Mike: No, during the painting process a very personal
soon to be hung in the Bristol City Theatre, and to Emily connection’s formed between the painter and the
herself, who’s also with us to share her experience. sitter. You watch the shadows pass across their face
Mike, you didn’t paint Emily in your studio, did you? as you paint, so to speak, and as the hours pass with
the changing lights and shades, you see the person in
Mike: No, I put the finishing touches to my work in the
three dimensions as you never would in a photo and
studio, but I always prefer to paint my subjects in their
you paint that, so that what you have, I believe, when
own surroundings, with their objects and furniture
you’re successful is a closer likeness than you could ever
around them. I find, because they’re on their own
manage from copying a photo.
territory, so to speak, that they’re more self-assured and
comfortable, so they pose in a way that’s more typical Emily: I’m totally with Mike in his last remark. For me
of them. That’s what I attempt to capture: the person in the whole experience was nothing like what I’d been
their element, physically how they are. I’ve done a expecting. It was so much more intense and unsettling.

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