Artist Andy Farr tells stories about Coventry’s unsung people via his paintings, which this month go on display at the city’s cathedral. What’s On caught up with him to find out more about his Portraits Of Coventry exhibition... 

Artist Andy Farr has turned the spotlight on ‘the unsung people of Coventry’ in his Portraits Of Coventry exhibition. The portraits, first displayed as part of the City of Culture exhibition in 2021, are this month being shown at Coventry Cathedral. 

Andy describes himself as a painter and storyteller who’s keen to tell the narrative of a person’s life through his art. The cathedral is a poignant location for him. “It’s a place that signals hope and reconciliation,” he says, “and also where I graduated from my MA.”  

Portraits Of Coventry, funded by not-for-profit housing association Orbit, features paintings of people from Coventry’s older generation. “The City of Culture is quite a young thing, so I wanted to use the older generation to explore the history of the city.” 

Aiming to find the extraordinary in seemingly ordinary people, Andy met with Coventry residents to interview them about their lives and memories of the city. The conversations formed the basis for the portraits, which all boast their own unique style. 

A pop-art style was used to capture sitter Steve’s character and life. “Steve was there when Coventry won the FA Cup Final in 1987. He remembers that infamous Gary Mabbutt own goal, but he also mentioned he got to grade seven in piano. An amazing achievement.

“People have these lives you know nothing about until you sit down and talk to them.” 
Each portrait took a different amount of time to complete. “It depended on the sitter and their story. Ideas for some of the paintings came very quickly and only took a few days to paint, while with others it took longer to form the ideas to best capture the person.”

One of the sitters, Angela, had a lasting impact on Andy. “She was fairly wary of me at first, but once we began chatting, I discovered she came from a generation of nurses.” Angela’s mother was a midwife, while her two daughters are both in the nursing profession. Andy took the idea of the three generations of nurses to form Angela’s portrait. 

“Angela had a huge effect on me, just for the way she reacted when she first saw the painting.” She really appreciated the way the artwork captured her family history. 

Andy also interviewed and painted Liam, who was an amateur boxer in the 1970s. For Andy, it was really important to capture the small details in his portraits, as it was these which he felt revealed the most about the people he was painting. “Liam had these tattoos across his fingers, which spelt out his wife’s name - Mary.” Mary had passed away seven years earlier, but Liam told Andy he still thought of her and spoke to her every day. 

“I got the impression that Liam wasn’t a man you’d want to cross in the 1970s, but that Mary really put him on the straight and narrow. It was clear he was still mourning her.
“The portrait of Liam is very reflective, even down to the way he was sat, and I wanted to capture that.”
For the exhibition at the cathedral, two new portraits have been added to the original dozen. One is of Peter, whose connection to the cathedral dates back to its consecration in 1962. The other is of Polina, a recently arrived refugee from Ukraine.  

“Polina’s portrait is a bit different because it’s obviously not going to be a very happy picture. But I think it’s important to capture the reality of the situation and keep it at the forefront of people’s minds.” 
After the exhibition, all the portraits will be going to the sitters and their families.

Andy Farr: Portraits Of Coventry shows at Coventry Cathedral from Tues 2 to Thurs 30 August

Lily Smith