At Liverpool University Senate House until April 1st. ‘Poetraits’ is the first major project by the young portrait artist, Graham Kershaw. It was produced over the first half of 2003 and launched in July of that year in conjunction with the Ledbury Poetry Festival. Graham was the Resident Portrait Artist at Shell House in Ledbury at the time and the show has been touring ever since.
There are 12 portraits and each poet has written a poem specially to go with the portrait. All the poems are framed and displayed alongside the picture, so you get two things for the price of one. I had problems reading some of the hand-written poems but some are typed up including a nice Haiku by Jo Shapcott. All the portraits are in the same style, oil on canvas, with minimal finishing, the white canvas still showing round the edges. I like them, though poor Clare Pollard looks very anaemic!
There’s more details and a full list of the poets on the artists website.