It’s on days like these i wish i had a smart phone with a maps app , not just a photocopied sheet from my old A-Z

I’m off to Liverpool , never been before and I’m quite excited .
Chris Stevens , the artist who painted the big picture of Rosie for ‘We cluster and we stick’ and which now hangs in our hall , has curated an exhibition called ‘Reality’ at the Walker Gallery .
He has big names in it …Freud, Rego , himself … and Jenny Saville- I LOVE Jenny Saville ( specially her big naked ladies ) .
Anyway back to our portrait of Rosie , a few things you might not know-
Chris chose the photo from which to base his painting on .We gave him a memory stick of photos and asked him to chose ( now I think back , that was a big ask ) whichever one he wanted
The photo he chose is particularly poignant as it is a photo Florence took of Rosie modelling the dress that she (Florence ) had made of her Textiles design Technology GCSE final piece So Rosie was really posing for the camera .
Chris painted a parakeet at the top of the painting and then later painted over it in white- you can sometimes see it faintly in the background.

We have a lot of parakeets in Ealing

Chris was so nervous about showing us the painting ,he asked Stu and Jo Cummins to go round and see it first

Chris’s wife .Heather, worked with Anna Shutz’s Mum,Gill, so that is how Chris contacted Rosie’s friends .

Rosie loved Chris Steven’s work . She often said when she was older ,if she could afford it , she would buy one.

A cruel irony .