Portraits - The Red Perry Statements 1988-2001

In 1985 Mountjoy took up a teaching post at a newly built Community College in Plymouth. He became involved in developing new curriculum programs and qualifications for expanding post sixteen cohorts.

Initially, there was insufficient teaching material to engage these ‘new sixth formers’ and the enthusiastic teacher filled the gaps. He devised projects based upon a (fictitious) tragic event and the differing reports given by witnesses. Students role-played the characters, recounted statements as monologues and used them as a springboard for visual and performance art.

Mountjoy found that if he illustrated the project sheets, there was an improved response, and the students developed a quicker understanding of the brief. When the students themselves were models for the characters, there was an even closer engagement. He began producing sketches to use in worksheets, and this developed into personal portraits of the characters placed in the stories. 

The ambition to publish the stories as a collection is yet to be realised, but he continued to find models to illustrate the texts and has used friends and family to extend the range of characters. 

Please scroll down to view the paintings