Caution: Wet Paint – A Portrait of Gosia
It’s been a week now since Meet the Maker at • nook • gallery, and I’m only just starting to come down from the whirlwind. Between the buzz of the private view and the constant stream of lovely people visiting the show throughout the week, I’ve barely had a second to reflect. But now the exhibition can just be. It can hold its own space while people come and go, take it in, feel what they feel, and leave again. Which gives me a moment to pause and talk about the portrait I made that night - the painting of Gosia.
This wasn’t planned. Like so many of my recent paintings, it started with a feeling and a deadline. I knew I needed to paint something live at Meet the Maker, but I didn’t know what until the day before. And then I looked across the gallery as we were setting up the exhibition ready and thought, of course. Gosia!!
Gosia, is one half of the duo behind • nook •, alongside her partner Darren Whitcombe. And honestly, the space they’ve created, and what it represents, is just incredible. I fell in love with it straight away. Their mission to create a cultural hub, a platform for emerging artists, and a home for creativity in Kings Heath? It completely aligns with what I believe in. It mirrors everything I try to do through my work with United Artists of South Birmingham and community projects like Art in the Heath. So when it came to choosing someone to paint, Gosia felt not only fitting, but right.
I asked her on the Wednesday before the event, completely off the cuff. She gave me a look. “Are you sure you want to paint me?” I laughed. Of course I did. She was reluctant, throwing a thousand different expressions at me before we finally landed on a photo that felt like it captured her… bold, angular, with a quiet kind of confidence.
That Thursday night, I set up at the gallery with my board, my paints, and a bag of nerves. I started the painting live, talking to people, answering questions, trying to keep my brush moving while juggling conversations. It reminded me of Birmingham Open Studios last year when I painted Janice, that same tug of attention, painting with one eye and speaking with the other. But as the evening wore on, I could feel that I hadn’t quite got under the skin of it yet. Half done! The painting needed much more!
So I threw the board in the boot, paint still wet, drove home, and carried on in my home studio. I painted until 1am, completely wired from the night and probably also from the three or four packets of Parma Violets I’d eaten! The painting came together in that late-night space, all adrenaline and instinct. I’ve noticed that lately, some of my most intimate works have been created in that home studio energy: Rise, Drift, even the recent portrait of Chris the pirate. There's something about painting at home that opens up a different side of me, maybe because it’s where I’m most myself.
Gosia 2025 is full of purple. That colour keeps finding its way into everything right now. It started with the wall colour behind the Wonder Series, which, yes, was literally called Parma Violet, and somehow it’s bled into the work too. In this painting, the red of her T-shirt took over in the best possible way, and the hair was done using palette knives, true to form. There’s a looseness in it, a freedom. A kind of wildness that reflects the speed and the spontaneity of how it all came about.
But more than all that, this portrait was a quiet celebration. A thank you. Gosia is more than a gallery owner. She’s a designer and maker of beautiful leather bags, she has a stunning sense of colour, and she’s shaped a space in Kings Heath that feels thoughtful, welcoming, and full of soul. Her jewellery and botanical designs weave through the spirit of • nook •, and you can feel her presence in every detail. Painting her was my way of saying: I see what you’re doing here, and I admire it.
On the night of the private view, half way through the painting, we somehow found a way to staple the drawing board on the back so we could hang it onto a hanging system and get it up on the wall. A genius idea from Gosia! It was still soaking wet. I scribbled “Caution: Wet Paint” with a sharpie on the drawing board it when I had finished. It became a bit of a talking point, which felt perfect. The energy in the room that night was electric, and to stand there talking about a piece I’d literally just finished in the early hours of that morning, that was something else.
So here it is. Gosia 2025. A portrait painted fast, but felt deeply. A painting that started as a live demo and became a tribute. It may have been made under pressure, but it was made with care. With admiration. And with a whole lot of love for what happens when artists come together and create something meaningful in their community.
The painting is still hanging at • nook • until August 31st, hopefully dry by now!
Go see it if you can!
Details about the Wonder Exhibition can be found here
Title: Gosia 2025
Medium: Oil paint, Sennelier oil sticks, charcoal
Substrate: Fabriano Tela Oil heavyweight paper
Size: 65 x 50 cm
Year: 2025