Taking part in Portrait Artist of the Year 2020 series 7

It was a very early morning start to get to Battersea Arts Centre to compete in a heat of this very popular Sky Arts programme.  Following a welcome briefing from the friendly Production team and a socially distanced coffee with my fellow artists we were ready to begin. There was a definite air of anxious excitement.

Having appeared in an episode of Landscape Artist of the Year in 2018 I was under no illusion as to the pressure I would be putting myself under, stitching whilst being filmed and interviewed in a constantly interrupted four hour timeframe and using a newly temperamental old sewing machine.  Still, someone had to get out there and wave the flag for needle and thread as a drawing tool. It may as well be me. After all, I had a lovely new blouse to wear together with my lucky earrings  - but given that I operate the machine pedal without my shoe on, perhaps I should have given more attention to my choice of socks . . .

I had to refine my working technique to try and cram in all the processes I would need to follow to produce a stitched portrait. This is roughly how it went :-

 1. Mini photoshoot of my lovely sitter Deborah James from the “You Me &The Big C” podcast. Choosing a pose with fingers supporting her chin and revealing a beautiful large green ring. A nice little pop of colour and funnily enough also including a hand to draw. ( I had read somewhere that the judges like to see artists tackle more than just the head of the sitter.)

2. First drawing in pencil on paper, and managing to get Deborah’s features roughly in proportion.

3. Second drawing. This time on dissolvable fabric, overlaid on the pencil drawing which was used as a marker.

4. Pinning and hand tacking the dissolvable fabric drawing to my main canvas fabric ready for machine stitching.

5. A few minutes of practice stitching to make sure my sewing machine tension was behaving (backup sewing machine waiting in the sidelines)

6. Main machine stitching of face, hair, hand and clothing. Using the drawn lines as a rough guide only. So, effectively revisiting and drawing the portrait a third time.

7. Snipping off loose and tangled threads (painstakingly slow)

8. Getting rid of the dissolvable fabric by immersing in water for a couple of minutes. The production crew were a little curious but very prompt with my request for two jugs of warm water. Perhaps also a little bemused by the unceremonious dunking of my portrait into said water.

9. Removing dripping stitched fabric (now minus the dissolved layer) and wringing out excess water by rolling in a large dry towel.

10. Revealing the stitched drawing for the first time (fortunately no shrinkage). Fair point made by Kate Bryant that it is difficult to assess my work as you do not get to see it, until it is almost finished.

11. Ironing stitched fabric dry (takes forever) ready for hand stitching and applying colour.

12. Realising time has let me down and I have to choose between a number of necessary options - snipping off more threads (should have), unpicking a wonky line (should have), hand stitching shading  (should have) adding colour (did do) adding more colour (should have) framing the portrait (did do)

13. Feeling exhausted but pleased that I had managed to produce a portrait that was recognisably Deborah.

Although I believe I may have said to Tai “ Its not all about the likeness!”

 Here are a few screenshots from the episode