YOU may well recognise Toby Brown, or indeed his incredible portrait art work. A couple of years ago his paintings became the talk of the town when he held his debut solo London show, which featured many painted famous faces who suffer from mental illness, including Tony Blair’s former director of communications, Alastair Campbell, along with Amy Winehouse, Carrie Grant, Jonny Benjamin and Anna Williamson to name but a few.

The show - Behind the Smile - held at the Debut Contemporary gallery in Notting Hill, West London, caused quite the national stir, being picked up by the mainstream media, making the front page of The Observer, and being shown multiple times on national TV.

Toby had adopted the technique of getting his subjects to sit and pose for him. He asked them about their depression, and in that moment when they thought about the question, it was said he snapped the crucial shot that revealed their pain through their eyes, and then he painted from it.

It's a pain that Toby knew only too well from his own personal battles over the years, and working with the mental health charity Mind, he was determined to create work and a show that helped get people opening up and talking about the subject.

However, as much good as the whole event did in that respect - and it really did, with Toby being featured on The Guardian website, IBNews, LBC Radio, appearing live on Sky news and being interviewed By Eamonn Holmes and Sarah-Jane Mee and more - the pressure eventually caused him to have another psychotic episode he says, meaning he has been fairly quiet on the show front ever since.

Echo: Toby Brown self portrait

That is until now, as the man from Leigh, who is currently living in Braintree, is coming back to his hometown to open another solo show, for the first time since.

It opens this Friday at the new Studio Ten gallery in Leigh, and will include work from Behind the Smile as well as some more recently painted "ramblings from my mind" says Toby.

It was painting such "ramblings" that put Toby on the path to becoming a professional in the first place.

He explains: "I did art at college but to be honest, didn't really take it that seriously. After I left, I ended up working as a motorcycle courier for my family's company, then worked my way up to being a director. But it all got too much..."

The story is a sadly all too familiar one. The year was 2008 when the recession hit. Toby's family business collapsed, as did his marriage and he found himself with a mortgage, credit card debt and letters from the bailiffs.

Depression had set in, which led to sleepless nights, which led to psychosis. Toby had been self medicating with a cocktail of anti-depressants, sleeping pills, and other drugs, including the illegal kind.

"In 2009 I ended up in hospital, sectioned, and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. I had started getting hearing voices, hallucinating, suffering from drug induced psychosis. It was while I was in hospital I started doing art, doodling really, to try to express to my family what I was going through, to say what I felt I wasn't very good at explaining through talking. I felt they didn't really understand. That was what really got me started doing art again. I suppose I sort of had to re-learn it, but I kept going with it. Art really helped me. I became professional in 2011."

Out of Toby's darkest period came three images (pictured) which clearly show him in absolute torment. As dark and uncomfortable as they are, artistically they are awesome. They will be shown at the new show.

"My dad finds those paintings very upsetting - he found it hard to understand what I was going through at the time, although he does understand more now. My dad is very much a 'pull yourself together' type of person."

Echo: Alastair Campbell by Toby Brown

Of course, it's the same attitude of so many mentally healthy people who find it hard to grasp the complexities of sickness of the mind, but it is down to such stigma and lack of education that Toby continues with his campaign.

"After I started feeling better, I wanted to do some more work, and so put up a post on social media asking if anyone was interested in letting me do a show".

Leigh based artist Andrew Hall, who runs the newly built Studio Ten art complex, which is being set up as a charity especially to support people with mental health illness through different schemes including art therapy, got in touch with Toby, and offered the brand new space to him for a month.

"It's really exciting" says Toby, who manages his illness with medication, counselling and happens to be a big believer in art therapy groups. "It's really great to be able to work with Andrew to be able to do this.

"We are holding this show in aid of the charity Rethink. Rethink Mental Illness is a mental health charity founded in 1972 by John Pringle whose son was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

"I'm a big supporter of things like art therapy. I attend one of the groups run by Rethink and we sit and chat, paint, write, some people knit. I think any kind of creativity, whether it's painting or writing songs, poetry, is helpful as it opens up the mind as well as providing a form of escapism."

Echo: Amy Winehouse by Toby Brown

A percentage of the sales of Toby's work will be going to Rethink.

"I'm really looking forward to this show" said Toby. "I just want to keep working to remove the stigma of mental illness, to show that anyone can become ill, in the same way we can become physically ill, and we need to talk about it more."

Behind the Smile 2 will be at Studio Ten, Elmsleigh Drive, Leigh, from Saturday July 28 until Tuesday August 28. A private opening takes place on Friday July 27, from 6:30pm until 9pm. RSVP at toby@tobybrownartist.com