Victoria Rees 

The Dave Portraits

In March 2012 I asked Dave Newman, my farmer neighbour, if he would consider sitting for a quick portrait whist having a cup of tea. To my delight he said yes. I am sure of the date because Dave keeps a diary and has logged what the weather was that day and what we had for tea.

Twelve years ago was the beginning of an unexpected friendship and what would become a large and ongoing collection of small portraits, all in a 28 x 24cms format and done very quickly, directly in oil paint on a gessoed board.

While painting Dave, I began to understand the life of a small farmer doing his best to look after his land in a way that enhances flora & fauna, giving many of us in the Wotton under Edge area a beautiful place to walk. Dave in turn has come to know about the life of an artist.

On April 12th 2022 Dave announced at our Tuesday afternoon portrait session that he had sold the farm. I was floored, for eleven years he had come most weeks to sit. Of course we had discussed the increasing frustrations of running a farm but ... a brave decision had been made and change was happening even if I did not want it to. 

Dave now lives in Wotton Under Edge and still walks up to my studio to sit most weeks. He has time to write short stories, all in a 100 word format and reads them to me during our sittings. They are witty, thought provoking and informed by his life as a farmer.

This large collection of small portraits have become complete answers in themselves.

Artist’s statement

Victoria Rees is based on the Cotswold Edge, near Bristol, where she has had her studio for 35 years. She graduated from the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford and was then awarded the Jack Goldhill Bursary for three years post graduate study at the Royal Academy Schools.

Rees’s working practice is centred around the the people that come to sit in her studio. Amy, neighbour and retired ditch clearer, came every week for many years to sit for Rees.The bright colours she chose to wear for these portraits helped Rees to see colour as form in its own right. This understanding has been a strong continuum throughout all her work to date.

Her large painting ‘Amy’, oil on canvas, 180x170 cms made soon after leaving the RA Schools and was hung in the BP portait award at the National Portrait Gallery, shortlisted for the Travel Award, it was selected for the touring exhibition to Aberdeen Art Gallery. The poet UA Fanthorpe dedicated her poem ‘Amy Sits’ to this painting.
All Rees’s large scale paintings are informed and nourished by her continuing practice of The Quick Portraits, painted in oil on a 28x24 cms format, a project which started in 2012 with Dave, a farmer neighbour, coming to sit on Tuesday afternoons. He has kept a diary of the weather, what he had for tea & the general topic of conversation during these weekly sittings.

The fifty minute portraits began for Rees as a practice but, in fact, this now large collection of small portraits have turned into complete answers in themselves. Collector Carol Leonard chose two of these small paintings for The Discerning eye Open where they were then awarded the Parker Harris prize in 2024.

An unexpected bonus of this has been to allow Rees to quickly immerse herself into a community when travelling and derive a strong sense of place. People are happy to give fifty minutes to sit and chat while having a portrait painted.

Rees was a ‘Fellow’ at the Heliker-LaHotan Foundation, USA (2012, 2013, 2017)., She explaines : ‘At the time there was a visceral atmosphere in the States, with families deeply divided by politics and my studio became a safe place for individuals to sit and voice their concerns from both sides of the political spectrum. There is a vulnerability for both the artist and the sitter but, through the sitting process, trust is built up and an exchange of understanding happens and I am able to create the work’.

It was while artist in residence at Garsington Opera, Womrsley Estate, near Oxford that Rees was first asked to design a textile to celebrate the opera house’s productions. The success of her ‘Red Dress’ stole has led to an annual commission from 2012 and since then working with textiles has become a constant part of Rees’s practice. She has gone on to design for The International Opera Awards, Cheltenham Jazz Festival and exhibited her ‘Cunning Little Vixen’ textile hanging in the Silk Museum, Lebanon. Rees’s new project is the ‘Artists Square’ a limited edition textile created by invited artists.

CV in brief:

Exhibitions

recent

Shortlisted, ‘2nd round John Moore painting prize 2025

. ‘Awarded Parker Harris Prize 2024 Discerning Eye Exhibition London, group, 2024. Two portraits chosen by judge & collector Carol Leonard.

  • ‘Night shift’ self portrait painting , 2023 accepted for the Ruth Borchard Artists Self Portrait Exhibition , London, group, for the third time.

  • Selected for the 2023 RWA 170 open, Bristol, group.

  • Cadogan Contemporary , Exhibition, Solo, Royal Academy Summer Show, London, group, Scottish Gallery, London, group, Discerning Eye, Critic's Choice, group, Beaux Art, Bath, group, Critic's Choice.

  • BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London. group, Aberdeen City Art Gallery, Scotland. group, Anthony Hepworth Fine Art, group, Islington Art Fair, London , group.

  • Peter Greenham, Memorial Exhibition, London, group.

  • Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Exhibition, Solo.

  • The North Wall Gallery, Oxford, Exhibition, Solo.

  • Piano Noble - Kings Place, Ruth Borchard Exhibition

  • The Silk Museum, Bous, Lebanon. group.

Awards:

  • The Goghill Landscape Award. The Jack Goldhill Award to RA Schools for 3 years Post graduate. The David Murray Landscape Award,.The Spectator and Adam Company Award.

  • The Parker Harris Award 2024

Reviews:

  • Featured in two page spread June issue 2025 Cotsworld life , The Times , online June 2025,

  • Country Life, The Oxford Times, The Daily Telegraph, Cotsworld Life, Artist edition June 2025 ( two page feature).

Residencies:

  • Garsington Opera, The Heliker-LaHotan Foundation USA 2012-13-17, Cheltenham Jazz Festival AIR, 2018

Public Collections:

  • TSB PLC, Farrer Brown Institute of Histopathology, Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.

Television:

  • In Conversation with poet U A Fanthorpe
 (West Foot Forward) .

  • BBC Radio , interview for Cheltenham Jazz Festival.

Talks:

  • ‘The Southbank Sinfonia and Jesus Jones drawings', how my practice as a fine artist has influenced my textiles’ at The North Wall Theatre, Oxford to coincide with Solo Exhibition & The Young Britten in Oxford festival 2018.

  • Brighton University, Visiting Artist's talks: ‘The Southbank Sinfonia and Jesus Jones drawings, how my practice as a fine artist has influenced my textiles.’