Small painting for a fundraiser at the National Portrait Gallery, London

The year after my painting was selected for the BP National Portrait Competition, they asked all the artists to do a small postcard-sized piece for a fundraiser. Rather than do a whole face, I thought about doing just one part.

If there’s one enduring quality I remember about Nanna (my Dad’s mum), it’s her smile. She smiled a lot. She was nearly always happy it seemed. There was a happily wistful look when she listened to you (though she was a little deaf). 

She liked to laugh, liked a naughty joke... and the odd tipple—even when she knew she really shouldn’t. Diabetes be damned!

I think she just loved being around people.

So this painting was a bit about that. Years and years of smiling.