Arturo Di Stefano

The figurative painter shows us around his east London workspace.

- Anne-Katrin Purkiss

We are meeting at your studio at 8am. Is that when you would normally start to work?

I’m usually in at 7.30am and I am often here for 12 hours at a stretch. I am not painting all the time. If you did that, you’d become a robot. There is time for assimilating, assessing and thinking.

Have you always lived and worked here?

I was born in Huddersfield and brought up in Liverpool. My parents were both immigrants. They came here from Italy in the 1950s, but I am English. I never thought about it until recently, because of Brexit, especially as a crucial period of my childhood was spent in Italy. This has brought the idea of identity into focus for me. The earth beneath my feet has slightly changed now.

Was there any artistic tradition or influence in your family? My father was a contadino; he worked the land. He left school at the age of seven. He came here when he was 24 and worked in the coal mines for 14 years. He is a real human being: warm and gentle. If the world were made of people like him, there would be no problems.

At what point did you decide that you wanted to be a painter?