The portrait of my son, Ruari, is almost life-size and was composed on a huge piece of MDF some years ago. It uses a great deal of collage material, and photographs of him taken over two or three years, so that in the end the portrait captures his passage from adolescent into young man. He's in his bedroom - juggling eggs, as an encapsulation of the phase of his life when he did stand up: the entertainer.  

Recently I've finished a portrait of my daughter, Harriet, using the same techniques. It's exactly the same size as the one of my son, though executed about twenty years later. I had a good idea of the composition for Harriet's picture at the beginning of the process, and as I worked current events crept in - a hidden reference to Covid, for example, or a tiny doll added because during the time I was working Harriet became pregnant. Her portrait has a Brighton setting: her world, past and present.