Experience of portraiture in a clinical setting: An artist’s story

In this article the author reflects upon the challenges, rewards and learning he experienced as a portrait painter working on two arts-based research projects in hospitals. He describes how the relationships with the patients and caregivers who sat for their portraits generated new realizations for artist and model. Although initially resistant to the notion of art as research, his profound experiences co-creating with people portrayed, convinced him of the healing values and therapeutic benefits that artistic practices have in abundance. Portraiture, here, served as a bridge that brought the two worlds of art and medicine together.