I always loved being a Daddy and like most dreaded the day the kids left home when they ‘went off into the big wide world, leaving me behind as an obsolete old relative to grab the world by their hands’. Truth be known they did all go off and have their own families, giving me eleven grandchildren who I adore but no – they didn’t leave the old man behind. I see them all often and love the idea we are all still very close. I’m really proud of my kids.

The painting is a pen and ink called Young Women from my exhibition Journeys End 1995.