Rough Sleeper and Homelessness in Portsmouth

I am currently engaged in a project challenging public attitudes to rough sleeping and homelessness with the Society of St James.

Also researching how portraiture can be used as a tool in breaking cyclical narratives of negative entrenched, internalised ideas of self-worth and boost self-esteem particularly in difficult areas of mental ill-health, drug and alcohol dependency. I shall be updating this page with new paintings in the comings months. 

Every Tuesday morning I go out with the Society of St James' outreach team and we check on regular clients (the SSJ call them clients) and any new ones that come through Streetlink (Streetlink is a national network where the public can report a rough sleeper on their website, the SSJ and other like minded charities up and down the country will respond with a welfare check and any help they need). The SSJ has a day centre where the clients can clean up and get food, after the mornings outreach rounds this is where I catch up with regulars and get to know new ones. In the afternoon I take part in an art class sketching clients and taking photographs for reference material.