Here is an excerpt from the essay by Glenn Holman, for the full PDF please e-mail info@floatingworldbooks.com

"Still, it gives you time to think…
To sit almost perfectly still for an hour or more is a rare thing to do in this day and age. To do so whilst having your portrait painted is I suspect rarer still, but this is exactly what the ‘Andy Parsons Project’ asks of its participants. On the face of it the concept couldn’t be simpler. Hire a studio in a prominent location and advertise for sitters, anyone and everyone, to come in and sit and have their portrait painted; the result a ‘snapshot’ of certain people in a certain location at a certain moment in time. In reality, it raises complex and important questions about the role of the artist in society and the status of painting as a contemporary art form. For the participants in the ‘project’, this may well be their first encounter with an artist, their working processes and concerns, and to sit under Parsons fearsome analysis will have been quite an introduction.
It’s a fascinating experience seeing an artist whose work you know and admire at work. Andy Parsons is normally the most mild mannered of men, but in the studio something of a transformation occurs. There is a focussing of intent on the task in hand that is complete and the level of scrutiny and concentration are extraordinary. The sheer physicality of the act of painting is mesmerizing to observe as every brush mark is considered, placed and appraised, sometimes with satisfaction, sometimes with dismay. It is evident that this endeavour of painting is no walk in the park, and as Parsons attacks the canvas you are aware that there is a conceptual and technical struggle underway to wrest a meaningful artwork into existence. You become acutely conscience of yourself under the onslaught of this observation and feel pinned to the spot, rather like one of those butterflies in a glass case that the Victorians were so fond of.

Still, it gives you time to think…"