In 2023, I have challenged myself to make fifty portraits of people that I am, in some way, connected to. I've asked people from the village where I live in Monmouthshire. I've asked people I've worked with in the past 20 years. I've asked people I went to school with and people I went to university with. I've asked people I've painted with and people I've rowed with.

The point is that as an introvert who found herself living in isolation in rural south Wales during the pandemic I need to get back out there and re-connect with people - and it's not something I'm good at. I prefer structured social or work interactions to just giving someone a ring. I have been looking for a subject for an art project for a while and really want to develop my portraiture - especially use of colour and layers... so this is the end result. 

All the paintings are oil on stretched canvas and 11x14 inches - which is a very pleasing uniformity when viewed as a whole. 

If it goes well, I would like to arrange an exhibition of some kind, perhaps in my village and perhaps in London. In the meantime, it's lovely to be collecting familiar faces to put on the walls of my studio space.