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I first came across artist Emma Wesley’s work during a trip to the National Portrait Gallery with MCC Artist & Library Committee Members in 2013.
Portrait of Lance-Corporal Johnson Beharry VC (2007) captured everyone’s attention with its superb technical skill and intense level of detail, almost as if the viewer was seeing the subject through a magnifying glass. Later that year MCC approached Wesley to paint the portraits of two former England captains, Andrew Strauss and Claire Taylor, in the setting of the England Dressing Room at Lord’s, as part of the Ground’s ongoing Portrait Project.
I caught up with the self-taught portrait painter in the Dressing Room after her latest sitting with Taylor, and we discussed learning from the Old Masters, sports psychology and how clothes transform her subjects.
Before your success as a portrait artist, you received a postgraduate diploma in the conservation of paintings. Did you ever work as a conservator?
No, not really. My idea was to work part-time as a picture restorer and part-time as
a portrait painter, but after I finished the course my painting began to take off and there wasn’t really any time for restoration, which suited me very well actually. Restoration really aided my creative process because I learnt how pictures are made, as well as the techniques of the Old Masters – the best way to learn to paint is from studying the art of the past.
Some artists start a portrait with a sketch in paint while others make preparatory sketches in pencil before touching the canvas. What’s your approach? And how long does the process take you?
Years! I will have had about eighteen hours’ worth of sittings with Andrew by
the time I’m finished. We’ve already had three sittings, during which time I have pretty much completed the initial sketch on paper. Next we will have a period when I will paint him as he sits with me here, and then there is so much work that will go on without him in my studio, where I will add some of the details of the cricket clothes and equipment.
My studio is turning into a bit of a dressing-up box with all the cricket kit I have there at the moment, as well as the surgeons blues and military tartan trousers from other commissions.
Claire is fully kitted-up in 2009 gear in her portrait to represent a key year for her, when she won two World Cup wins and was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year. She said to me that she loved it every time she put that kit back on! Costumes and props feature heavily in your work: is this purely to document a subject’s career?
The clothes provide the structure and colour scheme for my paintings. I’m
also interested the function and effect of clothing, especially with this commission. When you see cricketers on the pitch with helmets, pads and gloves, it’s very difficult to get an idea of them as a human being – we just see them as the sports person, and they seem dehumanised in a way. Andrew compared going out on the pitch to being a gladiator entering the arena.
In these portraits I am trying to capture the moment they put their ‘armour’ on and transform themselves for the match. That’s why we chosen to have the portraits in the Dressing Room because it is a transitional space that perfectly captures that moment of change. Both Claire and Andrew use this space to collect and ready themselves for the game ahead.
The Dressing Room at Lord’s is a carefully guarded space during major matches and the walk down through the Long Room out to the middle can be quite solitary for a batsman. Andrew spoke to me about his debut here and the support he received from Members, as well as the intense pressure to perform.
Yes, both Andrew and Claire massively feel that pressure. Andrew mentioned his anxiety dreams – he said he used to have a reoccurring nightmare about struggling to put his pads on.
Claire said she had spoken to a sports psychologist about how to cope with the pressure. She experienced a build-up of anxiety in the days beforehand and she was taught to compress those feelings into one motion, and for her that was putting on the helmet and transforming herself.
Claire recently spoke to me about how she sees things differently when she’s ‘in the zone’ during a game. Do you have a similar feeling when you are working on a painting?
Yes, it’s quiet an intense processes. I look at every detail. I’m very interested in the textures in skin and fabrics, so I carefully look at the lines of people’s faces and clothes. But beyond looking, my main research is talking to the sitters to get an idea about what drives them. Part of the challenge is to understand about people’s jobs and lives and what motivates them.
It’s just so fascinating – I particularly like painting people who have a vocation, who absolutely love their jobs whatever they might be. The nice thing about being a portrait painter is that it gives you an entry into so many worlds. At moment I’m painting a surgeon, a hop farmer and
a head teacher, as well as two cricketers.
This commission is my first foray into the sporting world. That’s why this has been so fascinating, as cricket is such an alien life to me – it’s such an alien life to most people I think.
Growing up in Yorkshire you must have seen some cricket?
Cricket was something I saw being played on a village green. Initially it seemed to me to be a pleasant, gentle past time that went on in the background. I knew nothing about it really until I took on this commission, but that is often the case with the different worlds I paint. It’s part of the challenge that I love.
The other day one of the guides was here in the Dressing Room showing a group of people around. The guide asked the group whose name appears first on the Honours Board, and I thought, “I know that!” And then he asked what the highest number of runs at Lord’s was and I thought, “Gosh, I know that as well!”
Works produced as part of the Lord’s Portrait Project are displayed in the Museum and Pavilion. Pictures are discussed in detail on specialist art tours: to book a place on a tour, call 020 7616 8595 or email tours@mcc.org.uk.
