A painter at an easel working on a portrait of a young woman in a cluttered, sunlit studio.
Sitter · Tomas ReyesYour first sitting

Portraits in oil, painted from life, in three sittings of two hours.

A studio above the framer's on Castle Street. You sit, we talk, and in about three weeks there is a painting of you that looks like you on a good day.

How the sittings work

Recent sitters

A loose oil portrait of a seated woman on canvas, the sitter blurred behind it.
Ama, in a blue shirt · 50 × 40 cm
A painter's hand sketching a woman seated in a studio full of colourful paintings.
First sitting, charcoal on the canvas
A hand holding a pencil, sketching a seated figure on white paper.
A study for a commission · pencil
A bearded painter smiling with a brush in his hand in a studio full of seascapes.

Three sittings

The first is mostly drawing and talking. The second is paint. The third is the eyes and the hands, which take longest and matter most.

Head and shoulders, 50 × 40 cm£950

Half length, 70 × 60 cm£1,600

From a photograph (for someone gone)£1,100

Framing, downstairsfrom £120

Before your first sitting

What to wear

Something you would wear on an ordinary good day, in one plain colour. Patterns take a sitting of their own.

How still

Not very. You can talk, and we stop every twenty minutes. Only the last half hour of each sitting needs you quiet.

When you see it

At the end of every sitting, if you want. Some people prefer to wait for the end. Either is fine.

If you don't like it

We talk about it at the third sitting and change what can be changed. You pay the second half only when you're happy.

A man working at a desk in a dark, warm studio lit by a single lamp.

Thursday evenings: paint a face

Six people, one model, two hours, all materials. Eight weeks from a pencil to a finished head in oil. No experience, and no talent, required.

£240 for eight weeks
A smiling woman with curly hair and glasses in an apron, standing in an art studio.