This episode brings together acclaimed artists Charmaine Watkiss and Curtis Holder to explore the connections between contemporary portrait drawing and visual storytelling. Artists often use the simplest and most conventional tools for drawing, such as pencil and pen on paper, which are also the most common writing tools. More than any other medium, drawing tends to be more reactive, accessible, fluid and personal. These characteristics of drawing lend themselves to storytelling and the possibility of incorporating multiple narratives into a single work, including overlooked or misrepresented stories in history.

In this episode, Tanya chairs a discussion between the two artists, in which they discuss their drawing practice in relation to the theme of storytelling as well as exploring general trends in contemporary portrait drawing today.

Listen to the episode here:

Podcast Host: Tanya Bentley
Tanya Bentley is Contemporary Curator at the National Portrait Gallery in London. She works with the Senior Curator of Contemporary Collections to look after the Gallery’s large collection of contemporary portraits (2000–now). Tanya researches the collection, makes acquisitions, commissions new portraits and curates exhibitions, temporary displays and gallery rehangs of contemporary portraiture at the NPG. Tanya is currently curating a three-year rotating exhibition (2023-2026) of materials from the Lucian Freud Archive held at the NPG, including Freud’s sketchbooks, displayed in Room 26 as part of the permanent collection.

Curtis Holder is a London-based artist known for large-scale graphite and coloured pencil portraits and figurative works on paper. His practice is rooted in dialogue with his sitters, with drawings emerging through dynamic, febrile lines that trace their evolving relationship. Through this process, Holder brings visibility to people whose stories are often overlooked in mainstream narratives, revealing the tenderness, presence, and emotional resonance of each subject.

Charmaine Watkiss is a British artist known for her works exploring the botanical legacy of the Caribbean and tracing the lineage to Africa. Informed by detailed archival research, she reimagines the women through whom such knowledge of plants and their properties has been handed down, using her own likeness to tell these collectively experienced ‘memory stories’.

A newly commissioned work by Charmaine Watkiss currently features in Artists First: Contemporary Perspectives on Portraiture, on display at the National Portrait Gallery until 2 August 2026. The display foregrounds the artistic vision of nine contemporary artists who were invited to create work in dialogue with the Gallery’s permanent Collection. Displayed throughout the building to reclaim untold narratives and connect past and present histories, the artists’ works place contemporary art at the heart of the Gallery to challenge the roots of portraiture and rethink its potential for today and for the future.

Artworks discussed in this episode: