Extraordinary Portraits with Bill Bailey: Audio Description

Welcome to the Extraordinary Portraits exhibition with Bill Bailey, audio described by Martha and Jo from the community trainee audio description team.

Bill Bailey matches inspiring people with talented artists to create a series of portraits which reflect modern Britain. This exhibition celebrates six unsung heroes with a series of specially commissioned portraits as featured on BBC One’s hit show, Extraordinary Portraits with Bill Bailey, now in its fourth series. The six part series also explores the art of portrait making, as Bill, a keen art lover, challenges some of Britain’s leading artists to capture the spirit of the inspiring individuals with interesting stories to tell. They are stories of compassion, bravery and verve captured for posterity in these compelling portraits.

Bill Bailey says “It’s been a real privilege to be part of Extraordinary Portraits, hearing the incredible stories and watching a brilliant range of featured artists at work has been a fantastic experience. I can’t wait for viewers to see ordinary yet extraordinary individuals immortalised in portraiture.”

Suzy Klein, Head of BBC arts, says “Extraordinary Portraits has established itself as a viewers’ favourite. With Bill Bailey at the helm. We celebrate inspiring people, capturing the spirit and soul of this outstanding group of people has been a privilege, and we are so proud of the stunning artworks, sculptures, paintings that have come out of this series.”

Nav Raymond, Executive Producer and Co-founder of Chatterbox Media says “Bill is someone who connects with artists and subjects. Not only is he an artist himself, but his empathy and warmth towards these remarkable people helps celebrate their lives, making this a very exciting series extraordinary portraits is a chatterbox media production for BBC One and BBC iPlayer.”

The Executive Producers are nav Raymond and Ali quirk, and it was commissioned by Stephen James Yeoman for BBC One and BBC arts.

The first portrait is Marva, Lionel and Chloe foster carers. Marva and Lionel decided they want to make a difference by becoming foster parents to teenagers looking for a loving home. 30 years later, they have fostered almost 200 young people in need. The task to capture Marva and Lionel on Canvas falls to Manchester based artist Chloe Cox, the self taught painter, has had a meteoric rise and has already been commissioned by His Majesty the King and the Windrush commemoration committee. Now she is on a mission to make the people we see on gallery walls more representative of society.

This photorealistic painting depicts a close up of Marva, an older black woman with long greying dreadlocks, standing in front of her husband, Lionel, an older black man wearing a dark flat cap Lionel has his arms around Marva in a protective and loving way, with his hands gently clasp across marva’s chest. Marva’s hands hold her husband’s arms, reciprocating the love. Even though they don’t have big smiles on their faces, their love and kindness radiate outwards, giving a sense of the compassionate couple they are.

Marva wears a burnt orange patterned top and has lots of gold and silver rings on her fingers and her earlobes. She also wears a necklace of large black and white beads. Lionel wears a dark blue blazer and has a short grey moustache and beard. The level of detail in this painting is truly remarkable. The brush strokes capture every wrinkle and line, every hair, every shade and colour, so much that it’s as though the couple are stood in front of you looking straight at you.

Next is Claire and Orianne. Claire started her own charity after being diagnosed with incurable cancer in her 20s, determined to make something positive out of her illness, she now helps raise money and support for other young people in a similar situation, attempting to capture this remarkable woman on Canvas is Orianne Pierrepoint, a realist painter and charcoal artist based in South Wales. The pressure is high, as Orianne knows. This portrait will serve as a lasting legacy to Claire’s determination and achievements.

This striking charcoal portrait depicts Claire, a 30 year old white woman with long, straight, dark hair well past her shoulders. She’s standing gazing into the distance with her hands reaching towards her necklace. The finger and thumb of one hand clasped the round locket with her other hand gently on top, she has a small smile with a spark of love and hope in her eyes. She wears what appears to be denim looking jumpsuit, which has buttons and poppers. Her nails are painted a dark colour. The portrait is devoid of colour other than the black of the charcoal and the white of the paper the contrast providing a dramatic overall effect.

Next is Rizwan and Jack East Londoner, Rizwan stopped someone trying to take their own life in his first week of working for London Underground. In eight years, Rizwan has stopped another 28 people from coming to harm. His training teaches him how to spot vulnerable people, but his gift is how he relates to them individually, attempting to capture this remarkable man in a portrait is multimedia artist Jack Dixon, who describes himself as an artistic magpie.

He collects clues about his subjects lives and then builds them into multi layered visual artworks. This colourful portrait features Rizwan, a young man with brown skin and short dark hair. He has a friendly but serious expression on his face, the lower half of which is taken up with a thin moustache meeting a full, short beard and goatee. He is seated with his hands casually meeting across his thighs a wedding ring and silver watch visible. He is wearing a waistcoat in the style of Islamic traditional clothing, intricately sewn together with bright shades of gold and blue in a geometric pattern. This geometric pattern is reflected across the portrait on the rest of his clothes, on the surface he is sitting on and all across the background, among the pattern in the background, a collage of smaller images are hidden. These appear to be photographs faces of young boys as well as families, medals and logos. The overall effect of the pattern surrounding the figure of Rizwan makes this portrait powerful and dynamic with new things visible from every angle.

Next is Jill and David. Jill was just 14 years old when she was picked to represent England at Copper 71 in Mexico, the unofficial football Women’s World Cup. When the tournament was over, she and her teammates were hit with a ban by The Football Association, which had forbidden women from playing on professional pitches. Many of her teammates never played again, but Jill went on to be a founder member of Arsenal women’s and inspire a whole new generation.

Former England goalkeeper turned painter, David James has the task of capturing Jill’s achievements. He’s an artist who has donated his work to charities and created paintings to support some of his favourite causes. This is a large in proportion portrait which makes it seem like Jill is standing right in front of you. She stands in her childhood bedroom with white walls and shelves behind her. The wall features a large cartoon style poster of a female footballer, and there is various football memorabilia on the shelves, including trophies, football shirts, a hat, photos and books.

Jill is as she is now a fit and healthy lady in her mid 60s with mid length blonde hair. She is wearing a white V neck polo shirt, blue jeans and a black belt under her right arm, she holds a blue and white football and has a red and white football shirt flung over her left shoulder. She is holding the edge of this with her left hand. The only jewellery she wears is a simple silver chain around her neck and small studded silver earrings. She has a slight smile showing her top teeth, and looks friendly and ready to tell us about her adventures in football

Next is Millie and Karen. Millie is a campaigner challenging the stereotypes around Down’s syndrome, a drama student and social media influencer. She is campaigning for equality around pregnancies involving foetuses with Down’s syndrome. When Millie discovered that a healthy foetus with Down’s syndrome could be terminated right up until birth. She took the issue to government, demanding a change in the law.

Capturing Millie is artist Karen Turner, an award winning, self taught painter who celebrates people in society who aren’t always represented on canvas. This is a large portrait on a landscape orientation, on canvas without a frame. The portrait focuses on Millie’s torso, arms and head, and she is stood in the centre of the portrait with her arms outstretched on a brown and pink background. She has so much joy in her face, and is clutching a yellow ribbon in both hands, which swirls out and around behind her. She is wearing blue dungarees over a white t shirt, and has her light brown hair up in a side ponytail. The portrait shows her youthful energy, and she is smiling broadly with her whole face.

Next is Christian and Howell. When ex-paratrooper Christian left the army, he struggled to fit back into civilian life, setting himself a challenge, he decided to walk the entire coastline of the UK, leaving home with £10 in his pocket and two days’ worth of rations. He returned six years and 19,000 miles later, with a partner, a child, and having raised 500,000 pounds for a charity helping ex-servicemen taking on the massive challenge of capturing this remarkable man is howl prattley, an acclaimed sculptor with a royal pedigree who works in both clay and bronze.

This is a bronze bust of Christian and his dog jet. Christian has on a thin walking beanie hat and a big, Shaggy but neat beard, which jet is peeking out from under his chin. He looks straight ahead with determination and with a slight smile. He looks happy, peaceful and fulfilled. His beard flows down to become the stand for the bust.

Thank you for listening to this audio description of Extraordinary Portraits, we hope to welcome you back soon.