Jonathan Yeo I REMEMBER...

Jonathan Yeo is one of the world's leading figurative artists. Entirely self-taught, his portrait subjects have included former Prime Minister Tony Blair, American actor Dennis Hopper and members of the Royal Family

MY PARENTS ENCOURAGED ME TO BE CREATIVE. My mum had wanted to pursue music and hadn’t been allowed to by her parents, so I think she gave me more latitude than I would have had otherwise. People look back now as if it was always inevitable that I would go and do the things I did but I needed that early encouragement from my parents.

MY FIRST PORTRAIT SUBJECT WAS MY MUM. My parents kept my art on the walls when I was young, and one was a drawing of my mum in felt tip. It really bothered me at the time because I made a mistake and couldn’t fix it.

I USED TO DRAW MY TEACHERS AT SCHOOL DURING CLASS. I had ADHD, which was diagnosed many years later when I was about 40, and I found it much easier to pay attention to what was going on in class if I was drawing. Some teachers told me off for it but some would allow me to do it, and I would do better in those subjects.

MY GRANDMOTHER HAD A LITTLE LOCAL ART GALLERY IN GREENWICH, and I used to go in to see how the local artists worked in their studios. It was a valuable insight into how people were actually doing it.