Stories held in paint

I’m a Coventry-based contemporary artist working primarily in what I loosely term narrative portraiture. My paintings explore the emotional lives we often keep hidden, stories of trauma, resilience, recovery, and what it means to be seen.

I see myself as a storyteller first. Painting, for me, is a way of listening.

My Practice

My work goes beyond capturing a physical likeness. Each portrait holds a story, shaped through conversation, trust, and shared reflection. I spend time talking with the people I paint, listening to their experiences and allowing their words, memories, and emotions to guide the work.

Often, those voices sit alongside the paintings themselves, giving viewers direct access to lived experience rather than interpretation alone.

Each painting emerges from the dialogue, so stylistically they can be quite different. Sometimes built slowly through layers decision making looking for an authentic resonance with the story I’m trying to tell. So they could be oil, acrylic, graphite, collage, figurative or more abstract. I’m drawn to surfaces that already have a history, found canvases or un-primed grounds, because they reflect how memory works: incomplete, layered, and imperfect.

Why I Make This Work

My interest in mental health and emotional wellbeing is deeply personal. I grew up with a father who lived with bipolar disorder, and that early experience shaped how I understand vulnerability, resilience, and the unseen struggles people carry.

After more than 25 years working in marketing and advertising, a serious illness forced me to pause and reassess my life. In 2010, I made the decision to commit fully to painting. What began as a return to a long-held passion quickly became a necessity, a way to make sense of experience, both my own and that of others.

Completing an MA in Painting at Coventry University in 2017 helped me articulate this direction more clearly. Since then, my work has increasingly focused on social impact, collaboration, and creating spaces where difficult conversations can happen. I am now a PhD student at Nottingham University where my focus is Being Seen through art.

Themes I Explore

Much of my work focuses on the parts of human experience that are rarely visible:

• Mental health and lived experience

• Trauma, recovery, and resilience

• Memory, identity, and belonging

• Giving voice to stories that are often overlooked

These themes run through all of my major projects and continue to shape how I work with individuals, communities, and institutions.

Projects & Collaborations

Collaboration is central to my practice. I regularly work with universities, charities, and cultural organisations, including the Institute of Mental Health, With-You and Arts Council England.

Projects include:

• Being Seen (2024–25)
  Exhibited at Coventry Cathedral and Nottingham University, this project explored personal testimonies of healing and resilience following trauma.

• Inside Out (2022)
  A project funded by Nottingham University and NCVS, focusing on lived experience and emotional wellbeing.

• Portraits of Isolation (2020)
  Created during the COVID-19 pandemic in collaboration with With-you and Framework.

• The Twisted Rose and Other Lives (2018–19)
  A series responding to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and recovery.

• Portraits of Coventry (2021)
  Narrative portraits celebrating the everyday lives of people across the city, particularly those in independent living schemes.

• Lost Generation (2014–16)
  A WW1 centenary project working with young people to connect historical experience with contemporary life.

Recognition & Collections

My work has been recognised for both its artistic quality and its contribution to mental health and public engagement.

Highlights include the Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize, Arts Council England funded projects, a Highly Commended award at Herbert Open 2025, and winning the 2025 IMH Publication Award for communicating research through lived experience.

My work is held in permanent collections at Coventry Cathedral, Coventry University, Nottingham Trent University, and Newcastle Central Library.

Being Seen in ArtCan’s Virtual Gallery

The exhibition features work from the last 8 years accompanied by poetry, personal narratives and video that deepen the understanding of trauma and recovery.

The paintings are the result of collaborations with the Institute of Mental Health, MIND, Birth Trauma Association, With-you, Day One Trauma support, University of Nottingham and Arts Council England.

VIEW The GALLERY HERE

PRNITS AVAILABLE FROM EARLIER PROJECTS

PREVIOUS PROJECTS

INISIDE OUT: portraits of emotional resilience

I was commissioned to work with a group of people from across the Black and South Asian communities in Nottingham to explore their experiences of mental health and emotional wellbeing.

The paintings are currently on display at the IMH, Nottingham 

Portraits of Coventry

Portraits of Isolation

The Twisted Rose and Other Lives

Working Together

I’m always open to conversations about collaboration — whether with galleries, universities, charities, or community organisations. I’m particularly interested in projects that use art as a way to explore lived experience, mental health, and human connection.

If you’d like to talk about a project or commission, I’d love to hear from you.

CONTACT ANDY

Transformative Pathways
Performed at Coventry Cathedral as part of Being Seen: In Art, Words and Dance, 18 October 2025

Inspiration - Em Flint’s somatic healing narrative and the painting of the same name by Andy Farr. Original score by Justine Hewson Performed and choreographed by The Restless Movement Collective: Sara Bernhard-Reed, Heather S. Davison, Denise King, Surinder K. Tamne, Molly Wright. Videography & editing  by Christian  Kipp

Being Seen: In Art, Words and Dance event. Held 18th October, in Coventry Cathedral. Featuring testimonies from participants, a new dance piece (separate video) and poetry, and staged in the cathedral's transept.

Breaking Free People's Choice Prize winners UK Artists Exhibtion 2023. I painted this piece for an exhibition at Galerie ART POOL in Vienna. I wanted to reflect on the passing of time since I painted my first Carousel horse in 2017 as part of my exploration of bipolar disorder.