Page 38 - ABILITY Magazine -Cedric Yarbrough Issue

Martirosyan: Hearing your name I thought, does she have Greek roots?
stands out in your portraits are the eyes. What’s the story behind that choice?
Andrea Tyrimos: Cypriot. Both my mum and dad are Greek; my mum was born in Cyprus, the little island near Greece. But I’m a born and bred Londoner.
Tyrimos: I didn’t start off making a conscious effort to portray the eyes in any special way, but a lot of people comment on that. I think when I met the people who sat for the portraits, the one thing that came across strongly was the emotion in their eyes—a combination of vulner- ability and strength. Also the lack of detail in the hair and clothing in the paintings draw the viewer in a bit more. So maybe self-consciously I try to get the painting to show the person’s inner self.
Martirosyan: Have you’ve been to Cyprus or Greece?
Tyrimos: When I was young, we spent most summer holidays on Cyprus. I hadn’t been for about 10 years, and then I went last April; I had an exhibition there. That was cool. And then a few years ago, I visited a beautiful Greek island. Have you been?
Initially, I thought they were going to be full portraits with the backgrounds filled and all the rest of the details. But as I painted, I had to trust the process, and I realized the figures looked stronger, and you were able to connect with them more emotionally when you didn’t have any of those distractions. You were confronted with just the face looking back at you. It forces you to connect with it.
Martirosyan: No but I would love to go to the islands.
Tyrimos: They’re really lovely.
Martirosyan: I can’t imagine the accessibility there. How does your mum get along physically?
Tyrimos: It’s only as she’s gotten older that she strug- gles a bit more. They said she might now have post- polio syndrome, where she gets tired very quickly. But she has a caliper to support her leg, and yet she still gets around.
Martirosyan: I get that.
Martirosyan: Let’s talk about your paintings. What really
Tyrimos: I paint portraits of members of the public and of celebs, so by stripping them bare of how their hair was styled or how they were dressed, it brings it back down to the fact that we’re all just people, united by our different experiences with mental-health vulnerabilities.
Andrea Tyrimos in her London studio
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