Featured in The Times.

Seeing the photograph of me standing in front of Empowering Her in Parliament in The Times feels rather special.

One of the things I kept hearing from the people who passed through the Upper Waiting Hall was how colourful the paintings were. How joyful. How feminine. And I think that contrast matters. These paintings belong in this setting. They are academic oil portraits, part of the same tradition as the portraits that have recorded power for centuries. But they also break some of its rules. They are unapologetically colourful, warm and feminine. The women do not have to lose those qualities in order to be portrayed with seriousness, status or power. Perhaps that is why they felt so striking in Parliament.

As Caroline Nokes MP said on the opening night, there was “nothing dark, gloomy, pale, male and stale” about them.