SKY PORTRAIT ARTIST OF THE YEAR, SERIES 11

This year, I massively stepped out of my comfort zone and decided to apply for Sky Portrait Artist of the Year for the first time. My self portrait above got me through to the final heat stages. Painting with a four hour gun to your head in an open space with a live audience, judges, camera crew and no control over who your sitter is is an extremely unnatural painting environment for me but StoryVault Production team are a well oiled machine and do their utmost to make it work for the Artists.

So why enter after actively avoiding this scenario for so many years? I wanted to push myself this year, experiment with speed painting and watch for any happy accidents or techniques that I might want to apply to my style of painting. In terms of the show, I had zero expectations. As we all know, art is subjective. That is why it is so wonderful and there is space for everyone. I went in hoping to finish something that I didn’t want to immediately burn. And I achieved that. So all in all, I think the whole thing was a positive experience.

APRIL 3rd. 6.30pm. BBC ONE. TUNE IN!

This Sunday 3rd April at 6.30pm on BBC One, I’ll be appearing in the TV series Extraordinary Portraits hosted by Tinie (Tempah).

I was extremely lucky to have been paired with the incredibly inspiring Alec Burrough; an 88 year old dairy farmer from Devon who refuses to slow down. I think Alec is the heart of what this show is about and along with his family really represent good, honest and hardworking people who often get overlooked. A real human story that spans from post World War Britain to heartbreak and future hopes for their farm and family.

Tune in this Sunday at 6.30pm to see his extraordinary story.

EXTRAORDINARY PORTRAITS WITH TINIE

‘Historically, portraits have been reserved for high society. We wanted to put a spotlight on our modern-day heroes,’ says Tinie who will be presenting a brand new series starting February 27th on BBC One….and I’ll be making an appearance too!

Each week, Tinie matches an Artist with someone who has had something extraordinary happen to them, or are living an extraordinary life.

My episode will be airing April 3rd so tune in to meet my sitter and gain an insight into their life and the painting process. Given that most Artists lead quite solitary lives, this was so far out of my comfort zone but I think it’s good to try new things once in a while.

ART ON A POSTCARD

I was thrilled to be asked to take part in this years’ Art on a Postcard International Women’s Day auction!

493 female Artists were asked to donate up to 4 postcard sized pieces of art to have auctioned off for the charity, The Hepatitis C Trust. Bidding started at £50 for each postcard and my painting of Rhiannon was the third highest selling postcard, raising £1000 for the charity…and I couldn’t be happier about that!!

REACTIVE PAINTINGS...

It’s funny how a painting can take you back to a place you thought you had buried. I have so many mixed feelings about this piece. Introducing my dearest Dad, Papa Pool. one of the smartest and kindest people you could meet. he worked his ass off his entire life so when he decided to retire, he didn’t actually retire from life. If anything, I think he was more busy than ever working tirelessly to help charities he really believed in and could make a difference - Friends of Friendless Churches, the British Bee Keeping Association…I could go on. But I won’t. His beloved bees have become an integral part of his life and dominate 80% of his conversation so it was a given I had to immortalise him in his bee uniform. He looks like an Astronaut here which really plays into my ‘Retirees’ theme conveying a sense of liberation where an adolescents playfulness and freedom to dream complements the wisdom of age.

I painted this piece just before I left for LA. he had been ill but we weren’t getting anywhere with diagnostics so off I trotted to America. Within a week of being there, he was diagnosed with cancer. The (original) dreaded C word. It was a sucker punch for me to say the least and despite wanting to come back, he insisted I stayed in LA as there was nothing I could do until they knew more details. I did come back after a few months and we honestly were preparing for the worst. We had planned a huge 70th for him but he couldn’t get out of bed. well, after a year of treatments and our wonderful NHS, he turned a corner and five years on, he’s still going strong.

In short, this painting reminds me of the trauma our family went through but also everything that followed which totally warms my heart. One year after Dad was diagnosed, he was well enough for me to take him to the Royal Society of British Artist’s annual exhibition private view where this painting won us the De Laszlo Foundation award.

MORE TALES FROM LA...

I’ve recently started taking my camera out with me everywhere on the off chance I might see someone that absolutely has to be painted. On the whole, most people are receptive and I’ve found it’s opened up really interesting conversations with people I would have never got to know about previously.

Whilst I was living in LA, I met this wonderfully dynamic pair of women who allowed me into their home, opened up to me about their lives and agreed to let me capture them in a painting. Grandma Laurel F. and her Granddaughter Laurel L. The detail of each piece is incredible, describing their family history through people, experiences and places within their family tree. Laurel F. has dedicated her life to helping others through her work with Planned Parenthood, National Organisation for Women, Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights to name a few. At the time I met them, she was driving her 97 year old neighbour to her weekly errands, and making crochet hats for hospitalised children. She lives on Social security and somehow includes small donations into her budget. A wonderful pair of humans.

A QUESTION OF STYLE...

‘What’s your painting style?’ Someone asked me this recently and I found myself staring at them like a Persian cat. I drew a blank. I don’t think I’ve ever asked myself that question. I talked to my partner about this question that had stumped me and we both agreed painting most days is like herding cats. the only consistency in my day is I get up early and paint until quite late. Everything in between can sometimes feel like throwing mud at a wall and sometimes, it just sticks. It’s rarely magic, just hard fucking work (but as my Sister-in-law told me recently, no-one buying art want to hear that - oops).

I keep coming back to the question of style. I don’t think that most genuine Artists strive towards a style. Strive to get better and hone their craft? Yes. I think style is the afterthought of years of evolving techniques which would imply it’s only temporary and subject to change. Looking back at old work next to more recent, it’s fascinating for me to see how the way I apply paint has changed but the subject matter remains fairly consistent. I will always love painting older faces.

If I had to sum up where I am now today with my work, I would say predominantly a portrait Artist, I enjoy combining my more analytical approach to the human form with a contemporary illustrative quality to the silhouette and composition.

A TURNING POINT...

I had so much fun painting this piece. It was my biggest to date and one of those rare paintings that just seemed to come together pretty quickly. The dream.

I met Rosie whilst I was living in LA for a bit. I was travelling to my friend, Tina’s house in Pasadena every day where we shared her studio for a few months.

Rosie lived with Tina and I entered their world soon after it had shattered when their beloved Matt (Tina’s husband and Rosie’s Dad) died. I’ve been friends with Tina for a good while but this was my first encounter with Rosie. It goes without saying that she is pretty astonishing to look at physically. Effortlessly striking with long limbs covered in tattoos. I think she had just shaved her head to make herself ‘unattractive’ to men after a break-up. Rosie - it didn’t work. But how fucking cool.

At the time I met Rosie she seemed to be at a point in her life where the contradiction of profound clarity and utter confusion when losing someone so important was stirring an undeniable need for change in approach to life. I wanted to capture that moment with Rosie sat in front of her Dad’s garage looking towards a hopeful future.

PAINTER'S BLOCK...

This painting came after about a year of painter’s block, not to be confused with writer’s block. I don’t mean I didn’t paint for a year. I did. All day, every day. But absolute utter shite. I was stuck in the grey in between trying to make art that I thought would sell and not standing my ground with what little clients I had. I probably spent about a year of my life painting backs of peoples heads. For the first time in my life I actually started getting migraines. if failing fast was my mantra at the start of painting again, that year was an epic fail.

I think when you work by yourself and on a path that has no rule book or guidelines, it’s really easy to lose perspective and motivation. Painting all the time for little to no ‘pats on the back’ or monetary reward at the start can be debilitating and a bit paralysing. I had so many ideas in the year but would always stumble back to what I thought would bring me success. Another thing I found (pre Instagram) was that Artists (not all, but a lot I encountered) would be a little fuzzy with transparency. This made things difficult in terms of trying to figure out what I was actually striving for and how to get there. Meeting Ishbel Myerscough for the first time (after fan-girling her work since I was a teenager) was a revelation. A totally down to earth, insanely talented Artist who was really generous with her time and gave me a lot of great advice in a non advice let’s drink endless amounts of tea and just chat about life kind of way. very grateful for that.

After endless days of trying to train my brain to not go around in circles with ideas I wasn’t totally in love with, I did the most basic thing. I started to paint what I know. I’ve always been drawn to older generations. Maybe because I never really had Grandparents - they either died before I was born or when I was too young to really notice. So I started to paint older people who I knew. It goes without saying that an older face aesthetically for me is the most enjoyable subject to work with but trying to immortalise their character in paint is my ultimate hope.

'FUCK IT' ENERGY...

This is another portrait from when I could only paint in my spare time. By this point I wasn’t taking full time art department jobs at the studios anymore but I was working from home doing any kind of film graphics and research friends passed onto me. Really grateful for that. For me, the film studio environment was not good for my mental health and the minute I took myself out of it, I felt like a weight had been lifted. Don’t get me wrong, it’s terrifying leaving job security and requires a huge amount of ‘fuck it’ energy, a supportive partner who knows exactly what you’re going through and constantly reminding myself that if I fail, it’s not the end of the world. Big sissypoo, Susie told me it’s not about what you do in life, it’s about how you want to be. Day to day. That’s always stuck with me plus her killer advice on a bulletproof five point paragraph breakdown of any argument for my A-Level English exam.

The way I painted back then was so different but that’s the whole point. I think it’s important to be constantly learning and evolving with techniques. learning how to fail quickly and then find another way. Still always start with the eyes though. Don’t think that will ever change.

PART TIME...

I still love this painting. VERY emo. But love all the same. After my previous painting, I was still working in film but worked on this piece in my spare time (that’s a joke - no one gets spare time when they work in art departments for film). Naively entered it into the BP award at the National Portrait Gallery back in the days when they didn’t do digital pre-selections and you had to schlep all the way to the drop off warehouse in the hope that it would be picked out of thousands of applicants. It didn’t make the cut but the rejection email uncharacteristically felt it ‘important I should know’ it made it to the last round of judging.

Art competitions are such mixed bag. I would always recommend young Artists to give some (more than others) a go. It’s the quickest way to get work out in established galleries to a wider audience…if you get picked that is. Otherwise, it’s a fair old bit of money and time on what is essentially a lottery. And the rejection. Jesus. It can be relentless. That little bit of knowledge though that this piece made it to the last round and that someone other than my immediate family took an interest in my work was enough to start pushing the painting more.

Rob features in a few of my paintings. He’s (irritatingly) photogenic and makes a great painting. he’s also my partner so has no choice!

IN THE BEGINNING...

‘Jane’s mother’ | 30x24in | Oil on canvas

Hello 2022! Whilst I work on some new and exciting projects, I thought I’d share some oldies but goodies throughout the month. To start it off is this little lady…

After graduating from Brighton with a degree in Illustration, I used what I learnt on the course (nothing) and managed to claw my way through the door into film design (natural leap). After about five years of making (bad) tea and the occasional drawing detail of a door or window, I decided that this particular hell hole wasn’t for me. But what else was I good at? head scratch… As is with anything I’ve discovered so far, a lot of good things that happen come down to hard work and perseverance…but mostly luck and timing. During my head scratchy moment, in flew a painting commission of this lovely lady. I hadn’t picked up a paintbrush in about seven years but the client loved it. More importantly, I loved the process and it reminded me of what I truly loved doing. I din’t leave film immediately but I’ll always cite this painting as the one that opened up my brain again into thinking I could/would paint.