114 - City of Portraits

My intention is to paint an individual portrait of everyone in the tiny city where I live - St Davids in Pembrokeshire. There are around 1,800 residents and I have completed around 950 portraits so far.

The City of Portraits project itself began over ten years ago. A good friend and fellow artist who had cancer asked me to paint her, not knowing that the portrait would end up being finished after her death. Although I'd been doing some portraits before, the City of Portraits project really began around the time she died. The project soon became a homage to the St Davids community.

When I'm painting individual sitters, it's about trying find something of the essence of their character. Each portrait becomes a little story. People talk about their lives sometimes or even talk about the local area. In ways it can become a quite intense experience. I paint each portrait on a small canvas before being assembled in grid systems of one meter squared. Put together in this way, the portraits give a real insight into the community.

I’ve lived in St Davids for a long time, and the project has brought me closer to my adopted home and made me feel very much part of the community. St Davids is a very special place and a unique city. People from all walks of life integrate and live alongside one another. So, the project has become my way of paying tribute to where I live while being a kind of snapshot of the community. The City of Portraits project, was born from a deep personal loss. But it has grown into a testament to the tight-knit community of St Davids. What began as a request from a friend battling cancer to paint her portrait has blossomed into a mission to capture the essence of every resident, making connections and discovering the stories and characters that bind the community together.