Robert. Oil on panel, 2017.

In 2017 I put out an open call for portrait sitters. Robert was one of my twelve volunteers.

In person he was a happy, optimistic person, but my initial pencil sketch (image four in this slideshow) seemed to locate a deep melancholy, which intrigued me.

I produced a small oil painting, which was selected for the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery. The show subsequently toured to Wolverhampton, Edinburgh and Winchester.

Robert died in 2022.