DAUGHTER AND DOG-TER, April 2025

I love to paint my daughter. She's a wonderful artist herself and always offers keen insights and warm encouragement.

Here she sits with our Bichon. I paint in and around life — what is happening while I work is part of the practice. This portrait was painted while we watched Pope Francis' funeral, a moment that felt like a turning point in history.

For the first time I mixed a dark purple ground for the underpainting. It worked so well that it became the dominant colour of her clothes — the clothes emerging from the background as much as being painted onto it.

Acrylic on stone paper, 29 × 21 cm