2021
soft pastel on Mi-Teintes pastel paper
29.7 x 42 cm

This pastel painting is of my partner David. As you can see David has an amazing beard and a cheeky twinkle in his eyes. I’d been wanting to paint him for a while. He has always joked that he could be an Archibald Prize winning portrait if only someone would paint him! I said he needed to be ‘someone in the community’ (I asked the Archibald prize for clarification, statement as quoted) which he isn’t really. Not that I fully understand what that statement means. I’m guessing because he’s not famous enough? He thinks he is but that’s a different story.

David is as far away from a military person that he could be and it’s why we’re together.

Painting him was a lot of fun, especially the beard! I haven’t had much portrait painting experience. I was a military photographer and I really always loved to photograph people and capture their essence in a photograph. I feel this has translated into my new portrait painting passion.

Art and David have saved me through some terrible moments with the PTSD I suffer from my service in Rwanda.