Ordinary

Practice Works Process Endorsement National Gallery Community

Life as it's lived.
Human. Beautiful.

Ordinary

About My Practice

Why Ordinary exists

Siris Hill on his practice, the communities he works within, and what led to the creation of Ordinary.

Selected Works

Ordinary

David Shenton

Digital painting, 2025, 50 × 45 cm

David makes himself laugh at least two times a minute. Great wheezing chuckles as if he can't quite contain the delight he finds in the world.

He invited me into his home. It was like walking into a very clever dream. A maximalist's haven. There were plates he'd rescued from a skip, leftovers from an artist's heartbreak, now arranged as prized relics on the wall.

The more time I spent with David, the more I wanted to be like him. He reminded me what it feels like to be led by curiosity. That life is art and the joy is in finding the joke.

Ordinary

Plum

Digital painting, 2026, 40 × 30 cm

Mphil, ASD, CPTSD, Bsc, PDA, Msci, BPD, GAD, RSD, SPLD, MDD, DCD

People have, from time to time, attempted to explain Plum, which is understandable, as she offers so many promising starting points. But the difficulty is that Plum does not seem especially interested in being tidy.

Knowing Plum is not a matter of collecting the correct pieces and fitting them together. The pieces do not quite behave like that.

Altogether, Plum is a person who can be described, and has been, many times over. But she is not, for all that, particularly contained by any of those descriptions.

Elevated Surface
Process.

A node-based system that converts every decision made during painting into three-dimensional physical data, preserving the texture, weight, and direction of every brushstroke. Seven works will be produced as elevated prints during this project. David and Plum are two of them.

16-bit heightmap 8192 × 8192px

The painting, digital source

The painting.

Every work begins as a digital painting — the image itself, the starting point before any surface data is generated. Colour, tone, and composition are all locked in here.

Height map output

The
height map.

Every decision made during painting rendered as three-dimensional data. The weight of a stroke, the drag of the brush — all of it encoded into the heightmap and carried forward.

Close up of printed surface

The result.

Canvas texture. Paint texture. Directional brushwork. Not a reproduction — the painting itself, realised physically. Each piece unique to its source image.

"I can say without question that Siris Hill comfortably sits within the upper echelons of talent in the contemporary art world, and possesses remarkable ability married with pioneering artistic ideas and integrity. It is rare to find an artist not only capable of painting at quite such a high level, but able to put that talent to use within original ideas and a fresh take on well-loved techniques. Allowing Hill to explore this transitional/tangible side to his work further would, I believe, pay significant dividends."

Tina Ziegler

Director, Moniker Art Fair

National Gallery, London

The Stories We Don't Tell

To mark Rembrandt's 420th birthday we have invited artist Siris Hill to the Rembrandt Room to share how the Dutch painter inspired his practice. Following the talk, Siris will present works from his series 'Ordinary' in the Welcome Space of the Roden Centre for Creative Learning.

Siris Hill is a digital painter whose practice centres around challenging assumptions about people living with mental health conditions, and his unique 3D printing technology brings new perspectives to digital art. This event will be of two parts, with Hill reflecting on his journey and formation as an artist in reference to Rembrandt's portraiture works, followed by sharing examples from his series 'Ordinary' alongside tactile samples of the printing in an interactive showcase of his work.

Join us to think about the power of art to introduce us to people, represent lives very different from our own, and change our perspectives.

↗ View event at the National Gallery

EventThe Stories We Don't Tell

WithDr Maryanne Saunders

DateFriday, 17th July 2026

Time5.30 - 7.30 pm

VenueRoom 22, Rembrandt Room

EntryFree, drop-in

"I tell the world my work is about mental health and the marginalised, and then I show them people. The unrecorded moments outside of crisis and recovery."