Collaborative Portraits by Jonnie Turpie and Mohammed Ali are an ongoing series made together in their shared studio. They begin as drawn then silkscreen printed portraits by Turpie and developed with paint directly on to the prints and on acrylic layers by Ali creating unique images. They are framed and hung in spaces rather than on walls.
The collaboration began in May 2019 and is documented here:
UPDATE! October 2026. Soul City Arts Studio
When I entered the studio Mohammed was talking to a young guy and beckoned me over to introduce us: “This is CJ from Wolverhampton. He is studying art at school and found out about my work and his school requested a visit. So here he is.”
We discussed where he is with his work, the fact that he is interested in portraiture and will document this visit in his project book. Mohammed mentioned to him that I have made many drawn and printed portraits and that he and I had also collaborated on a small number of drawn, printed, sprayed and grafitti portraits. We decided to go up to my studio where a couple of the collaborations were framed. CJ was impressed with our efforts and enquired how we had made them. Ali explained how we used perspex to create layers of the drawing and spraying.
CJ asked if he could take a picture for his year book. We agreed and he took a picture of the art work of Ali and him holding it up.
As well as explaining I said I would send him links to these pages for the detailed documentation as he was interested in the process of creating portraits from phone photos, graphite drawing on textured film to be transferred to silk screens for printing. In the above phone photo you will see my reflection when making a photo of CJ as I noticed he was clasping his hands while concentrating on Mohammed’s words. I thought it might make a valuable portrait of this impressive young man.
I showed CJ more of the drawn and printed portraits and the process and he asked if he could take pictures for his year book. CJ and Ali went back to the main space where he could experiment and learn from the expert graffiti artist.
In the following days I experimented with a framing device and background removal application to make a more considered portrait of CJ Concentrating. It is currently a A3 photographic print but I may develop it further into a silkscreen print and share with CJ.
UPDATE
WhatsApp ftom Mohammed:
hi jonnie – this is CJ;s final work, inspired by the both of us, with your acrylic sheet painted in front!
The collaboration continues
