Nick

Nick

Oil paint on linen

Size: 60 x 50 x 2 cm

Nick was commissioned by Wendy Cogger after the death of her husband, Nick Collins. I knew Wendy well and had met Nick on a number of occasions. After his death, Wendy saw my paintings of Petr and Keith and Petr and asked if I would paint a portrait of him.

The commission presented an unusual challenge. Nick is the only person I have painted entirely from photographs taken by someone else. In a sense, I came to know him through her — through the photographs she lent me and the many conversations we had about him.

My aim was simple: to create a portrait that Wendy would recognise as the man she had loved. Before coming to see it, she told me she had spoken with a friend about what she should say if she did not like the portrait. She needn’t have worried. She felt it captured both Nick’s personality and his intelligence, and I was hugely relieved.

After Wendy’s death, the portrait was sent to Nick’s family in New Zealand. I do not know where it is today, but I like to think it still carries something of the man she wanted to remember.