Why I . . . paint

Abstract

GP Katherine Tully talks to Kathy Oxtoby about how painting helps her process the more difficult aspects of her clinical work, remain compassionate, and avoid burnout Katherine Tully’s interest in the care of older people is not only part of her practice, but also the subject of many of her paintings. The GP’s artworks include a series of portraits of older people. “Sometimes older people feel like they aren’t seen,” Tully says. “Conversely, painting their portraits meant really studying their faces for hours. I’ve had lovely feedback from the sitters about the experience.” Tully, a GP working with a virtual ward service in Devon, spends time outside of work at her studio creating “large scale, semi-figurative, expressive work in oils.” “My paintings are about bodies falling apart and we doctors trying to hold them together using whatever means possible, even when it’s clearly futile. And the absurdity of this at …