Portraits of West London Welcome

12 January, 2026 - By Nita Gula

For this exhibition, artist Hilary Puxley drew sixteen of our community members, whose portraits are now displayed at the heart of our centre.

Professional portrait painter Hilary Puxley is a Welcome Circle member here at West London Welcome. For this exhibition, which is now displayed in our centre, Hilary drew sixteen of our community members. She noted that each member and drawing experience felt unique.

The portraits were made in charcoal and graphite in 15 minute sittings and then finished later, without altering the initial drawings. She pointed out that ‘photographs can lie’, depending on lighting, tone, angles and colouring. ‘It is very different to what you see with your eyes, so I certainly made a big effort to preserve the original life drawings and make no radical changes.’

She also spoke on the intensity and variation of working with many people in one day; ‘On my first day at the centre, I sat with six different community members. Features such as hair, hijabs, complexions and clothes all differed so much. The variation of faces, nationalities, ethnicities and backgrounds, she noted, was entirely different to her usual work.

‘The physical variations were so wide. This project is like a treasure trove for a portrait artist. To see so many different people in a single day.’

Hilary has been painting portraits to commission for almost twenty years, having previously worked in the law and charity sectors. She normally works with oil on canvas, but draughtsmanship is fundamental to her practice so drawing from life is part of her regular routine. This project was a unique opportunity to make studies of an extraordinarily varied group of sitters, quite different in appearance and attitude from most portrait clients or professional models. She observed that sometimes (language permitting) conversation occurred spontaneously, but that it was equally special to reflect quietly and try to capture the likeness of the individual person whose life and experiences brought them here.