'I know people who say that dyslexia is a bonus. It's not'

Ahead of a new show, artist Lucy Jones talks to Jasper Rees about painting her own backside, refusing to be a poster girl for disability, and how her self-portraits felt like ‘coming out’

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What does an artist see when they look in the mirror and paint? A window into the soul? A diary entry recording a moment in time? A self, or selves? The painter Lucy Jones has asked the question countless times, and always the answer is different.

As a student, Jones, who has cerebral palsy, initially struggled with the intense scrutiny required for self-portraiture (Antonio Parente Take a self-portrait from 2013, when she was in her late fifties. She perches on a stool, knock-kneed, neck bent. Through glasses, bright blue eyes gaze interrogatively at the viewer. But what’s truly singular about the painting is the red shadow figure standing alongside the sitter. Its title asks a question: How Did You Get on This Canvas?

Cork Street in Mayfair, round the corner from the Royal Academy, is celebrating its hundredth anniversary as a hub for contemporary art. All the street’s galleries are in on the centenary, and the Flowers Gallery is using the occasion to celebrate the many self-portraits of an artist who had her first solo exhibition there in 1986.

The earliest painting on show in “totally, completely and absolutely Lucy Jones” is from a decade later. It shows her standing pigeon-toed with a paintbrush in her left hand and a walking stick in her right. Another, from 2000, shows the same walking stick detached from Jones, who is horizontally marooned at the top of the painting. The title: It’s a Long Way to the Bottom of This Canvas.

Jones has cerebral palsy. She’s 70 now. As a student, she initially struggled with the intense scrutiny required for self-portraiture. “I just didn’t want to look at myself in the mirror,” she says. “If you're very depressed – I spent many years with depression – I think it’s really difficult to look at yourself.” 'Lucy at 70, and It Started So Well!’ 2025 (Flowers Gallery)