End of Year Show // Catalogue

This painting of my dad was done, like all of my portraits in this square-foot series, from life in two hours in one sitting. Each of my portraits holds a memory and this one is particularly special because my dad pro-actively asked to come up to London from his home in Sussex and see what I had been up to.

It was done May 17, 2025. I know cos I wrote it on the back in pencil. I date all of my portraits. I’m an achivist of progress. He hadn’t properly seen my studio at the Quays before, not behind the scenes in the engine room. And the last time I painted him was six years earlier when I first began the series, which now numbers more than 550. I could see how proud – and maybe surprised – he was at the work I was producing, my studio set-up and how I was making a good living from my passion.

He brought some sandwiches up on the train, and a couple of Tesco own-brand kitkats. Maybe he didn’t realise we have food shops in London, or maybe it was hanger management in case he got stranded at the end of the District Line. I picked him up from Victoria on the Vespa and took extra care to weave dangerously in and out of the traffic on the way back. They were pretty decent sandwiches I have to say, ham salad, not too much mayo. Good grub, Pops. One of the best days. Love you.

Bartek, painted in oils in my Surrey Quays studio on July 7, 2025. I know the date cos I wrote it on the back. I always do. Bartek is number 564 (or thereabouts) in this portrait odyssey, an archive of acceptance which I have been working at since 2019. All the portraits are the same size (30x30cm) all from real life (not photos) and all done in two hours (with no overdubs or touch-ups after the fact). It is what it is. It’s a record of that day, where I was, where they were, and what we made together.

This is a personification of all the disparate characters I have connected with through my portraits process over the last half decade, but in particular in the past couple of years, where I have become so comfortable with painting that I can let the depth of the conversation flourish.

There are many great moments, interesting and erudite, open and vulnerable, friendly and warm – conversations that have punctuated my year of interactions. It was tough to choose just one, but there was something visceral in this capture, which both myself and Bartek felt deeply. I’m often asked why I don’t record the conversations that take place during the sittings and turn them into a podcast. But the answer is simple: the exchanges that take place during that time are sacred. It is not ‘content’ to be aired. It would mean less if it was shared. It would be devalued and diluted, and the complicity I feel with my sitters would dissipate, like waking from a dream and trying to recall something that does not want to be recorded.

I’m looking forward to more connections, more conversations, more curiousity, vulnerability and sharing in 2026. Do get in touch if you would like to join the memory bank. The face factory. The portrait portal.