First Meeting 2

Oil on board
46.5cm x 51cm

A late starter to a career in art, formal training began at a summer course at Slade School of Art in 2011, followed by two years at Edinburgh’s Leith School of Art where, in 2016, I was awarded the school’s Figurative Painting Prize. Earlier careers including midwifery, health visiting and counselling, focused intensely on people. People and the human form, continue to be the major focus of my work today. I think of myself as an expressive representational painter. I aim to create an engaging image and something of what I feel and experience of the subject/s, rather than simply recording what I see. My preference is to work from direct observation but producing portraits of NHS front-line workers (#portraitsfornhsheroes initiative) during the pandemic forced me to think more positively about photography as a resource. I work in oils and/or mixtures of ink and wash.

During the pandemic the news about so many elderly in the care system, ill or dying and separated from family, was heartbreaking. Looking back at photos, taken a decade earlier, of my 95-year-old mother meeting her 4 weeks old great grandson stirred powerful feelings. A poignant sadness about what some would never experience but also a reminder of the power and importance of intergenerational love. Just months before she died this tiny, frail, old woman managed to find the strength to hold the newest member of our family and gaze at him with unadulterated love and joy. My memory of the time is clear, the image iconic. I had a strong desire to create a painting based on the event. I drew on memory, my felt experience and numerous photos. My experience painting four NHS portraits helped me translate the photographic information without slavishly copying. I produced many drawings and several oil studies before committing to the final work when the painting took on a life of its own.