Douglas MacDiarmid has always painted portraits. Apart from commissions they are mainly of his friends and companions. In fact, he learned portraiture by painting folk he was fond of. He usually approached this work very slowly, as much taken by what a head reveals as by the effort to suggest all that remains hidden.

A lot of his most successful portraits have been done from memory. ‘Sitting’ he believes, puts the subject in an unnatural position, apt to distort reality. Nothing Douglas does is dashed off, it is always approached in a very disciplined manner. A portrait required personal encounter: taking notes, imprinting on his mind not only shape, colour, texture etc but even more importantly, the animating spirit. Only when he was already acquainted with the subject, would he work from photographs.

CAPTION :  Stuart MacDiarmid 2006 Acrylic on rag paper, 76 x 57.5 cm Private Collection, Wellington, New Zealand

Take, for example, two very different portraits of his favourite cousin, Stuart MacDiarmid, whom Douglas knows very well…

These cousins came to know one another on Stuart’s regular trips to Paris as a veterinary exotic disease risk specialist representing New Zealand’s biosecurity interests at regular international forums. One is as tall as the other and both have a similar sense of humour. When Douglas presented Stuart with this portrait, worked from memory and photographs, the subject “saw my likeness immediately and liked it. I’m different now from 12 years ago, so other people might have a different view.”

Theirs is a very close bond, in fact Douglas regards Stuart to be more brother than cousin. The portrait really does capture a man with a wide interest and knowledge of the world.

CAPTION : Stuart in China 2010, acrylic on rag paper, 76 x 58 cm, Private Collection, Wellington New Zealand