Miriam paints mainly in oils, but her practice encompasses other medium and is very rooted in drawing. Her early career was spent exploring various themes and ideas, including slightly surreal still lifes, she eventually settled on portraiture some twenty years ago. Miriam's work is very classically inspired and she paints with an exacting technique and remarkable level of detail.
She has exhibited widely and her work has been included in prestige international exhibitions, including multiple exhibitions at the MEAM Museum, as well as exhibitions at the Hoki Museum in Japan. Miriam has also been commissioned to paint portraits of high-profile individuals, notably Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Your work has evolved over the years, spanning still life, architecture, allegory and, most recently, portraiture, do you see portraiture as the culmination of your earlier explorations, or simply another phase in an ongoing evolution?
I’ve arrived at portraiture via still life and various other themes in my work. I actually studied 3D Design and worked in clay before settling on painting full time. I feel all these previous interests and practices feed into my current work and make my portraits all the richer. Making things gives you a very real awareness of texture, form and how light and shadow informs the way we see physical shapes. I love describing and inventing a sense of space in paintings, and I get quite creative with it too, often using projected perspective as a unifying language, which really informs my sense of composition and of what is possible on the picture plane. My interest in objects and the three-dimensional aspect of them means that they routinely find their way into my portraits, often as symbolic elements and space markers. I have constructed many props and maquettes over the years which become elements in my paintings.
Left: Miriam Escofet, Titania, oil on linen over panel, 50 x 40 cm | Right: Miriam Escofet, An Angel At My Table, oil on linen over panel, 100 x 70 cm
You describe paintings as ‘portals,’ what elements are essential for creating that sense of entry or immersion for the viewer?
I do believe that all art has transcendental power, that is why we are so drawn to it and often moved by it. When a painting has resonance for the viewer, I like to think it acts as a portal, through which one experiences a heightened shift in perception, which can sometimes feel more powerful than day to day life. I think this ‘pull’ is very personal and particular for each individual, for me it feels like a visual seduction, and that seduction happens through the qualities of beauty, aesthetic sensibility, skill of execution and purity of idea a particular work conveys.
Can you talk about the pieces you’ve made for this show & how they responded to the theme ‘illuminated?’
I have two works in this exhibition; both are re-workings of previous works. I have recently been giving thought to the idea of re-visiting previous pieces and these are a start in that process. Both works are on the theme of Vanitas, or Memento Mori, one work using my Goddaughter as the model and the other using my late father, who was also a painter.
‘Vanitas Revisited’ is based on a pastel work from around 15 years ago, called ‘Vanitas’ which featured my Goddaughter as an archetypal young maiden, often used in Vanitas themes over the history of art.
‘Artist Vanitas’ is based on a recent fairly large biographical portrait of my father ‘What Will Survive of Us…’ which sets out to question what remains of us at the end of a life, after all is said and done. The work features elements of his paintings, set within a classical Spanish still life ledge motif. Both works are mixed media drawings on panel.
Left: Miriam Escfoet, Vanitas Revisited, 2025, Mixed media drawing on panel, 29 x 23.5 x 5.5 cm, £1750 | Right: Artist Vanitas, 2025, Mixed media drawing on panel, 23.5 x 23.5 x 5.5 cm, £1750
Included in AOAP Projects' Summer Show Illuminated at the Royal Society of Arts
Your use of layers and glazes suggests a slow, almost meditative process: what role does time play in shaping the final atmosphere of a painting?
My paintings take a very long time to produce, from a minimum of three months for a small oil painting, to anything up to a year for much larger works. This is in large part due to my technique, I evolve my paintings over many layers and use a lot glazes, I also paint with a very heightened sense of detail, which obviously takes time to execute. But I also like to take a slightly indirect path to the conclusion of the work, tweaking things as I go, revising previous decisions, I like to think that all these adjustments add up to a richer and more complex work. And I like to think that time spent on a work is felt by the viewer. Painting is in some real sense, a study of time, which is why it takes time to read, to view, to appreciate.
Miriam Escofet, Portrait of HM The Queen for the FCO, oil on linen over panel, 140 x 100cm
When painting commissioned portraits, such as your portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II, how do you balance the sitter’s public identity with your own artistic voice?
When painting a famous or very recognisable person, you are hyper aware as an artist of the public’s perception of that individual and the fact that your representation of them must carry some of that quality within it, even though as an artist and portraitist what ultimately interests you is the person behind the persona. In other words, what makes a portrait powerful and captivating, in my view, is when it has captured a sense of the vulnerable side of sitter, if you like the shadow side. There are plenty of skilled portraits throughout the ages that are representations of power and confidence and strength, but for me the most beguiling works always carry a sense of human frailty. So ultimately there is a balancing act to perform, which merges a little ‘myth making’ with ‘truth seeking’ Of course all these notions are very subjective, but that is exactly the currency of portraiture, through the deeply personally observed you hopefully express something universal.
Miriam's work is featured as part of the AOAP Projects' Summer Show Illuminated at the Royal Society of Arts. The exhibition is on view from the 10th - 23rd June at the RSA and on our website.
Questions by Kate Reeve-Edwards
Artist's Headshot by Aliona Adrianova | Banner image left: Miriam Escofet, Anthony, oil on canvas on panel, 70 x 50 cm
