I started it in the middle of May and I have
been working on it solidly until now. It is towards the end of July now. The portrait
is pretty much complete now. I do work very much in sections. I start with the head and
then work down. It is softened around the face but it has still got a very hard edge
at the moment on his suit. When I finish the background I will sort of blend that in there.
I enjoy working on that detail. It is kind of therapeutic. I almost zone out when I am
doing and I am in a trance. The repetition is sort of meditative. It is a nice process
to work through. Once I have got the head done I relax a bit then and I enjoy doing
the rest of the painting. When I do paint politicians what I am trying
to bring out is something that is a bit more imitative of their life rather that the photographs
that was see in the broadsheets or tabloids of politicians so quite often I set them in
their domestic environment. That is one of the good things about being a portrait painter
I think, because it is immediately intimate when you are with somebody you get insights
into their lives and where they live, which normally, generally, people would never have.
I find that really interesting. It is set in Lord Carrington’s ancestral
home, which is called Bledlow, in the Chilterns and because it is all so important to the
Lords Carrington throughout the centuries it felt like a very significant backdrop to
put Lord Carrington in because he is so linked with the building throughout history. I think
it is going to be quite an atmospheric portrait this one. It is going to be like drifting
and looming light in different spaces and different chambers, which I quite like, and
also a sense of depth. So where we are at the moment is that I am just working the background
in. I am looking at the wooden panelling and the way that the light floods in from that
small window up the top and just sort of illuminates the wooden panelling. It kind of evokes the
period and the era of the architecture. The whole painting is quite intense. The way that
I look at it is it is sort of tiny spider weaving a web detail over base tones and it
gradually sort of builds up. Painting the portrait is the most interesting
part of the painting for me, painting the head and the figure, and the background is
slightly less interesting to paint but it all helps to tell the story about the sitter.
I do enjoy painting older people. Lord Carrington, I think, was 95 when we had the sittings.
Really he was the perfect sitter for me. I think when you look at old people you can
see the journey in their face. That is kind of something that I want to bring out in the
portrait. So we have got the final unveiling coming up at Bledlow and I cannot pre-empt
what he is going to think. I hope he will like it, but hopefully he will see it as a
portrait of somebody in their nineties who is comfortable in their own environment.