Paula Rego, an appreciation: ‘She painted to find out what she felt’

Rego in her creature-filled London studio in 2015. Photograph: Antonio Olmos/The Observer

I first met Paula Rego 20 years ago, interviewed her again as she turned 80 and had a final conversation, by email, in 2021, just before the Tate’s magnificent retrospective of her work; it was quite possibly the last interview she gave. Our first meeting – she would have been in her 60s – was in her studio in Kentish Town. She came across as a thriving Londoner and, at the same time, as unswervingly Portuguese.

Come to Me, from Paula Rego’s Jane Eyre series. Copyright Paula Rego, Courtesy Victoria Miro Photograph: Copyright Paula Rego, Courtesy Victoria Miro