The Daily Faces is a representation of the Writers’ Hour in the form of forty eight 5’’ x 7’’ oil paintings laid out as 3 screens worth of the Writers’ Hour - 16 faces per screen on my laptop.  Writers Hour is a zoom meeting of writers who get together at 8am every morning and write for an hour together.  It actually happens at 8am across 4 different time zones so if you’re in the UK you can go to one at 8am, 1pm, 4pm and 9pm (shifts with BST).   I urge you to go - it is brilliant - you can find out more about it at londonwriterssalon.com.

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I’d been coming to the UK Writers' hour for about 18 months and I’d loved it for so many reasons but also for all the faces I saw every morning - in their different clothes, settings, camera angles and lighting.  I’d longed to make a painting about.  I asked Parul and Matt if there was any way I could paint these faces and they suggested me being the London Writers' Salon Artist in Residence.  My original intention was to paint 32 portraits but there were so many volunteers it ended up being 48 - I still didn't get to everyone!

 

I loved everything about this project, catching writers at work, contemplating and reciting.  I felt I was sharing their workspace with them and getting to know them a little as I spent an hour with them.  Everyone gave their permission to be painted but they didn't necessarily know when.  This was important as I really wanted to capture them writing and thinking, not posing.

Many of the portraits have now been bought and are at home with their writers, some of the them were used as the cover for the latest writers' hour anthology.  Some of the remaining paintings will be on display at my next show Time and Space at Hours Space in Bristol from 3rd November.