A collection of deeply personal self-portraits created by a Jersey teacher and artist while undergoing cancer treatment are now being exhibited for the first time.

Tim Ashton-Barnett was diagnosed with prostate cancer a few years ago, and he describes his life since then as a “journey”.

Between September and October 2022, Mr Ashton-Barnett underwent 20 sessions of radiotherapy at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge following his diagnosis.

Being in “unfamiliar territory”, he decided he wanted to record his journey – even if it was a journey he wasn’t really looking forward to embarking on.

While Mr Ashton-Barnett could have kept a written journal of his time away from home, the local teacher instead decided to record the experience through art.

His radiotherapy treatments would take place each weekday morning, giving him the rest of the day to draw and explore Cambridge.

Mr Ashton-Barnett would give himself 90 minutes to draw a self-portrait expressing exactly how he felt that day, always trying to make each one look different to the day before. These were originally never intended for public display.

The Colour Rooms gallery at the bottom of Beaumont Hill is currently running two exhibitions by Tim Ashton-Barnett – one is called Make My Day, and the other is called A Month In Cambridge, a personal project completed whilst receiving treatment for prostate cancer which was never intended for public display. Above is ‘Day 10’ from the latter series, entitled ‘Visit from the wife’. (ROB CURRIE)

Following his treatment and the completion of his self-portrait, Mr Ashton-Barnett would spend the rest of his day walking around the city with a camera.

Although he had no clear narrative in mind while taking photos, he found that many of his photographs reflected how he felt at the time.

While Mr Ashton-Barnett never intended for the works to be public, they are now on display at The Colour Rooms gallery at the bottom of Beaumont Hill.

The collection of works is called ‘A month in Cambridge’, and sits alongside another exhibition of his work called ‘Make my day’, which is collage work completed mainly as commissions.

Reflecting on the power of the series, Mr Ashton-Barnett said: “It has helped me to come to terms with a ‘journey’ that none of us want to go through.”

The Colour Rooms is open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, 10am to 4pm.

All proceeds from the exhibition will go to MacMillan, which supports people with cancer and their families.