Rod Kitson has been painting faces since 2019 and in that time has portrayed people of all ages and backgrounds, and now he will be exhibiting 400 portraits of people from the local area and beyond, writes Michael Holland.
The exhibition, Where Are We Now, will be on at his Art of Isolation gallery upstairs in Surrey Quays shopping centre from June 23 to July 20.
After four years of working on these portraits I wanted to know how he and his work had changed:
“This project has been a real journey, and I’ve learned so much about people and about painting. At first I was painting friends and other artists, but since I moved my studio to Surrey Quays three years ago it has become much more about the local community.”
In those years, Kitson has involved the community in a number of projects and shows; making furniture from the cardboard discarded by the surrounding shops; open art exhibitions, design your own T-shirt and print it sessions, weekly life drawing classes for people of all levels. He makes everyone who enters his studio/gallery feel like an artist and part of the art community he has built up and help evolve.
‘All of the portraits are the same 1sq ft size and completed in two hours from real life, not photographs,’ he stresses. And I can vouch for that because I sat for him at the early stages of the project. I realised that must be hard for a creative to set such a strict time limit.
And that strict discipline continues with him exhibiting every portrait he painted under those self-inflicted conditions. “All of the portraits I’ve ever done are on show – even the bad ones!’ He says. “It’s about owning my sh*t, saying, ‘Yeah, I wasn’t that great at the beginning, but now I’m through that and being true to myself and the newer paintings reflect that confidence.”
He took a breath and I stayed silent, hoping to witness that confidence. He did not disappoint.
“We are used to seeing only an artist’s best work, but that is not the reality of practicing as an artist. I wanted this to be human, to be flawed in nature, as we all are. It’s about acceptance, honesty and progress.”
I held my gaze, knowing he would fill the quiet void.
“The paintings began as just trying to get a likeness,” he continued, “to make it look like the person, but then it became gradually more about the exchange between us, about the experience.”
Rod was waiting for something from me. I gave nothing. I knew he was on a roll.
“People have opened up more and more as I became more open. It becomes almost like a therapy session, both for them and for me. The new pictures are much more alive because of it.’
I was now watching an artist at work with words and feelings and emotions and truth.
“I’ve worked through a lot of stuff, both in the pictures and personally in those four years, and these paintings are like a diary showing that journey. That’s what the title is all about, saying: That’s where we were, where are we now?”
Where are we indeed. From a personal view I have watched Rod Kitson grow as an artist and as a person. Each exhibition he curates attracts more people into the gallery to try stuff they had never even thought about before because Rod opened that door for them to step through.
I asked how he planned to get so many paintings up: “They will be displayed in a giant grid, in chronological order from my first tentative efforts almost five years ago, up until the present time.”
He explained that they are all oil paintings and the exhibition will demonstrate a progression in technique, with the early works being much flatter, both in paint and atmosphere, and the later works becoming very heavy, ‘almost sculptural’ with the treatment of the thick paint.
The youngest sitter so far was 10 years old, the oldest 86, and the current tally of paintings stands at 376, which is short of the promised number, but he assured me he will be working up to and during the exhibition, to bring the total up to 400.
“I am going to be adding to the exhibition while it is open, painting live within the gallery and adding the portraits to the wall as I finish them. I want to show that the project is ongoing.”
Indeed, this is not the end of the project, Rod plans to keep painting faces for another five years.
“I always thought that a decade would be a good time period to aim for – so this exhibition is like a halfway point. And it’s the last time I’ll be able to show them in my gallery in Surrey Quays – the walls are at full capacity with 400 portraits! “I’ll be looking for another gallery for the next time I display them in a year or two’s time.”
What about the responses from the sitters?
“On the whole, people are really positive about the outcome – however, in one picture I was accused of making someone look like she was ‘transitioning’, and she said I had ‘missed an opportunity’. Not sure what it was that I missed, but I thought it was beautiful.”
And your thoughts on the work?
“I generally get a good likeness so I try to be okay with whatever happens, but there have been a couple of occasions where I wasn’t so happy. It’s usually when someone makes demands that it goes wrong, because that adds pressure. Once I was asked by a sitter not to give her double chins. So, of course, my hand involuntarily went straight to the chin area and started trowelling them on! It wasn’t my best work.”
What do you talk about when you work?
“I’m amazed at how generous people have been with their stories and their experiences. There have been tales of nefarious capers, near-death experiences, lost – and found – loves. But of course, what is said in the portrait room stays in the portrait room. My ears are sealed.”
Just when I was about to delve into those secrets our time was up; he had a sitter waiting.
If you’ve got two hours to sit for Rod, get in touch and you could be a work of art.
Where Are We Now is on from June 23 to July 20 at The Art of Isolation, Upper Floor, Surrey Quays Shopping Centre, Redriff Road, SE16 7LL
To see Rod’s work and more about the show on Instagram and TikTok @RodKitsonArt or go to www.rodkitson.art
