{"id":2125944,"date":"2026-09-03T05:15:56","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T02:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2125944"},"modified":"2026-09-03T05:15:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T02:15:56","slug":"artist-shocked-by-online-response-to-portrait-of-dying-father","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2125944","title":{"rendered":"Artist ‘shocked’ by online response to portrait of dying father"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/5028\/live\/eee54b30-963a-11f1-a7ab-8b30adf0800a.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"VincentVincent Michael Brown<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Vincent Michael Brown painted his father in the Bristol Royal Infirmary shortly before he died <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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An artist who began painting a portrait of his father just before his death said finishing it had been “part of the grieving process”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Vincent Michael Brown, from Warmley, near Bristol, painted his dad “all through” his life and even had one of his portraits shortlisted for the BP Portrait Award.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But when he shared Father Holding On, his final painting of his dad, online, he was “completely shocked by the response”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Painting my father dying is about as emotional as it gets. I did most of it in tears, but it helped me. So many people wrote to me saying they saw their experience in my painting,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Bristol artist ‘shocked’ by response to painting<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The image attracted hundreds of comments and thousands of likes from people going through a similar experience, as well as care workers and nurses “who recognised that image”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Responding to the Facebook post, Georgina Millington wrote the image had stopped her in her tracks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Reminded me so much of my Dad’s final days. Beautiful heart-wrenching tribute.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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While Wayne England posted it was “almost too personal and painful to you, for me to view it., many thanked Brown for sharing such a “beautiful” and “powerful” image that “we can all be familiar with”. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Karen Perkins posted: “It seems to have touched so many of us who have also lost our dear dads in the same circumstances, staying by their side until they sadly slip away.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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And Sophie Weller wrote: “As a vicar, I’m often with people towards the end of life. This is a really moving picture and reminds me of many precious souls. I’m very moved by this.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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While Ellen O’Neill simply posted: “This is my Dad’s reality right now. So heart-breaking to sit and watch.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Image<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Brown says he is “completely shocked by the response” to his painting after he shared it online<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Born in Fishponds in Bristol in 1944, Brown said his father, Michael Brown, was a “tough” and “very strong man” who “didn’t show much in the way of emotion” and had “overcome all sorts” in his life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Married with four children, he was the captain of the local skittles team and a life-long supporter of Bristol Rovers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“My father was a carpenter. He worked very hard, often seven days a week, and he would come home and fall asleep in the chair,” Brown said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“And I would quite often whip out a sketch pad and do some drawings of him.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"VincentVincent Michael Brown<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Brown says watching his father become more vulnerable was “the first time I’d really seen him”<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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But following a diagnosis of vascular dementia, Brown said his father changed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“It took a year-and-a-half at the end, in and out of hospital,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“To watch him become vulnerable and see that side of him that I had never seen before.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“It was the first time I’d really seen him, and it was the first time he told me he loved me – near the end.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"VincentVincent Michael Brown<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Brown says his father was a “real fighter”<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In 2025, his father contracted pneumonia and passed away just before his 81st birthday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“I didn’t even cry when he died, and my father meant the world to me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“I’d already started the picture – it was about a week later, and I thought, ‘this isn’t right not to shed a tear’ because I knew what I felt. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“So I started painting – and I’ve never done a painting where I was crying throughout painting the picture.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Brown added he had wanted it to be a tribute to his father’s determination.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Right up until the end, he was a real fighter, and that’s part of what the painting was about,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Not just the fact that he died, but he didn’t go quietly.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Dad Holding On will be on display at the Royal West of England Academy for Art from 12 September to 3 January.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Follow BBC Bristol on <\/i>Facebook<\/i>, <\/i>X<\/i> and <\/i>Instagram<\/i>. Send your story ideas to us on email or via <\/i>WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cq6dpy40e3no”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/5028\/live\/eee54b30-963a-11f1-a7ab-8b30adf0800a.jpg”] Vincent Michael Brown Vincent Michael Brown painted his father in the Bristol Royal Infirmary shortly before he died An artist who began painting a portrait of his father just before his death said finishing it had been “part of the grieving process”. Vincent Michael Brown, from Warmley, near Bristol, painted his dad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2125944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2125944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2125944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2125944\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2125944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2125944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2125944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}