I really like Lokal and was happy to see recently they were having an artist in to paint pictures of the public.

I booked a time for Miko and told him that a man was going to paint his portrait. ‘My what?’ he asked. ‘Your portrait,’ I said. ‘You know, paint your face.’

When we arrived another family were just finishing their sitting, so Miko explored the joy of infinity in the mirrors while we waited.

When it was his turn to sit, Miko wriggled around until I told him he had to sit as still as he did last week when the doctor was trying to pull a piece of lego out of his nose. ‘Out of your nose?’ asked the artist. ‘How did it get up there?’

‘Oh,’ explained Miko patiently. ‘It was Star Wars lego and it jumped up there.’

Matti Pikkujämsä is a Finnish artist who does a lot of illustration in Japan. He also made the wooden animals featured in Lokal’s Wild Animals Helsinki exhibition.

Finished and pleased with the result, Matti and Miko posed for a photo before we headed home.

‘Do you like it?’ I asked Miko. ‘Yes,’ he said, smiling. ‘But Mummy, I thought you said he was going to paint my face.’