Following her recent exhibition ‘Residents’, Oriane Pierrepoint presents charcoal portraits of women with dementia and a series of drawings of folded tea towels alongside a large work in progress of a woman ironing similar cloths, a familiar domestic activity, one of many that are gradually receding in the memories of the women with dementia.

Pierrepoint gets to know her sitters and hear their stories before drawing them, and the resulting artwork allows their character to shine through, offering each subject dignity and poignancy. Pierrepoint doesn’t seek to illustrate the illness itself, but the individual affected, and their emotional experience. Her sensitive portraits confront society’s unwillingness to recognise the difficulties faced by some of its most vulnerable members.

Pierrepoint is a self-taught artist based in both Oxford and South Wales, practising in drawing and portraiture. She has recently achieved a first-class honours degree in Fine Art from Oxford Brookes University, however, has long before been a practising portraitist, taking on commissions from the age of thirteen. She has featured in Royal Society of British Artists exhibitions at the Mall and Lloyd’s Galleries, as well as a gallery local to her home town in South Wales.

Artist in Residence

Oriane Pierrepoint will be working on the large portrait of a woman ironing on the following days in October:

Wednesday 11, 11am – 1pm and 3pm – 7.30pm

Thursday 12, 11am – 1pm and 3pm – 7.30pm

Friday 12, 11am – 1pm and 3pm – 7.30pm

Saturday 14, 11am – 1pm and 2pm – 4pm

Thursday 19, 11am – 1pm and 2pm – 5pm

Friday 20, 11am – 1pm and 2pm – 5pm