"...On the cusp between a preserved world of tradition and ceremony and a contemporary one of media scrutiny and celebrity culture, Prince William encapsulates the myriad of dilemmas that confront the Royal Family as it evolves. He is seemingly available to all in pictures and interviews, whilst a real sense of this heir to the throne is inevitably ungraspable and out of reach.

Working from video stills selected from YouTube produced a balance for me between intimacy and remoteness. I've created decontextualised moments; the portrait is composed of different expressions with his eyes shut, possibly of contemplation or of fleeting ecstasy or sorrow. When making the work my imagination was filled with a kind of accentuated sense of Prince William. I like this idea of developing my own imagined knowledge of him through the act of painting with watercolour; speculating, interested in what might be revealed.

I'm interested in the relationship between my experience of making the work and how this translates to its viewing. With his eyes shut there seems to be a greater sense of his inner thoughts, even though you are inevitably excluded, I'm interested in how this spurs the imagination. The closed lids are a barrier that made me want to approach and go beyond. There's also something challenging about painting from a very low-resolution image. You have to interpret more, invent and embellish; meaning, to a certain extent, that the contours of his face were constructed in the mind's eye, like a strange vivid dream of being with someone famous where you start to have a sense that you are close to them.

When you paint someone using red watercolour it seems simultaneously fragile but visceral. There is this received notion of blue blood to differentiate royalty, but I like the association with actual blood, emphasising this more fundamental truth and connection with Prince William as just another person..."