ABOUT

This project began as nothing more than an excuse to get out of the office one rainy lunchtime and spend a little time rediscovering the collection at the National Portrait Gallery. However, it soon developed into an ongoing exploration of the figures gracing, not only the walls of the Portrait Gallery, but also those of the neighbouring National Gallery and collections further afield.

I then began questioning the lack of diversity amongst the sitters and set out to discover for myself as much as anyone, women of all backgrounds and cultures who had broken down barriers and refused to fit the mould. I am currently working on a collection of 20th century female actresses and musicians who carved out new and exciting career paths for themselves and held the door open for those who came after them.

I find the ever-changing attitudes towards the representation of women through the ages particularly fascinating, as well as how they're (blandly) labelled and described in galleries (no more being described in the first paragraph as 'Mr. So-and-So's wife please and thank-you), and how social media is helping to bring the lives of more forgotten women to the fore.

I alternate between pen and pencil depending on the timeframe I've set myself for any given portrait; pen for quick sketches, pencil for longer studies.