Out of illness, a journey of artistic discovery Tim had an insurance policy that would pay a proportion of his salary in the event of his being too ill to work. "When the consultant said he'd support my claim on the policy," says Tim, "I burst into tears of relief. All the stress of years and years went away. I'd never have left my firm if it weren't for my illness because of a sense of duty to my partners and to my family. It's very hard to step off the treadmill. It needs something bigger than you to make you do it. Although he enjoyed his work, Tim admits he tended towards workaholism and felt frustrated creatively. Not surprising, perhaps, given that he was the son of a dancer and a musician. Of his four siblings, one is the actor Anthony Andrews (of Brideshead Revisited and The King's Speech fame). Tim, too, would like to have been an actor. While studying to be a solicitor, he told himself that if he failed just one exam he'd give up law, but he kept on passing. In fact both of Tim and Jane's children (Tom, 32, and Florence, 29) have embarked on acting careers - confirming the artistic thread that runs through the family. After retiring in 2006, he began to flex his creative muscles, writing stories about his life as a lawyer. Then, in 2007, he spotted an advert in a London magazine by one of the world's leading fashion photographers, Graeme Montgomery, who was looking for "real," as opposed to professional, models to pose for a book of nude portraits. I was the first to reply and the first to walk into his Clerkenwell studio. I'd always been interested in photography and nudity doesn't bother me. I did it because I could. He came across similar ads by other photographers looking for subjects and realised he had a project: he contacted them, explaining that he had Parkinson's and wanted to chronicle his illness. Over nearly six years, and 247 portraits later, he has been shot by many eminent photographers, as well as a host of unknowns. He has been photographed nude in a cardboard box, naked running across a field and, by Rankin, wearing a fake pig's snout. He is caught looking pensive, sad, joyful, playful, in images that show facets of his nature - by turns tender, fragile and tough. You come away with a sense that via this collaborative project he has been able to explore his creative side and has become an artist - although he is reluctant to call himself one. Talking to both Tim and Jane Andrews in the lead-up to their joint exhibition offers a fascinating insight into the impact of ill health on a marriage, and the challenges that can make or break a relationship. Jane, of course, was devastated by the diagnosis and worried about the future, but other emotions welled up too. One of the effects of Parkinson's is to rob the face of emotional expression; for Jane, this meant she could no longer read Tim, and that contributed to a sense of him not being the person he was. An artist of international repute with dozens of exhibitions to her name, she had previously had five days a week, 12 hours a day, to paint in her studio at home: suddenly Tim was around all the time. This, and her concern for him, caused her to lose the intense focus that her work demanded. It wasn't until 2007, when symptoms of tremor and stiffness were worsening, that Tim decided to take the drug levodopa to help control them. "Tim went on the drugs and it was amazing," says Jane. Suddenly he was back. But, as Tim began to be immersed in his photographic project and to enthuse about all the young artists with whom he was consorting, metamorphosing from subdued to exuberant, Jane was forced to confront her own feelings: anger about his illness, jealousy about his new enthusiasm for artists when her own creativity was hampered by his disease, and conflicting emotions about duty, responsibility and caring for someone else. "Jane felt she was losing me when I first got Parkinson's," says Tim, "and then, when I embarked on my project, taking my pills and becoming Mr Superman, that she was losing me again. This thing was fun and so engrossing it was taking over my life. Jane's response, when she finally managed to set to work again, was a powerful and provocative series of paintings completed in 2010. The Stations of The Skirt comprises 12 paintings exploring notions of domesticity and women's responsibilities, at once both dark and humorous, and a not so veiled reference to the Via Dolorosa and the 12 Stations of the Cross. There was also the business of having to sell their home to pay the mortgage, months of clearing the clutter of 23 years, and the search for a new home, which they eventually found in Brighton, but it needed months of renovation, for which Jane assumed much of the responsibility. Another 18-month hiatus in her work followed. It is indicative of the trajectory of their relationship since Tim's diagnosis, and their essential loyalty and mutual support, that her latest series of paintings, which she will be exhibiting at Farley Farm, alongside the portraits of Tim, is entitled Don't Look Back. "I guess," she says, "that, like Lee Miller and Roland Penrose, in whose home we will be exhibiting, Tim's photographs and my paintings reflect the turmoil and adventure of the separate worlds which we inhabit together. Our lives have changed dramatically - in many ways and, curiously, for the better. Tim says: "I'm much more in tune with Jane's work than I used to be, and I think we understand one another better than before." As for his feelings about his own life, he sums them up: "You know that feeling when you are 15 and everything begins to explode inside you, but then you get tied down to exams and a career? Well, I feel like 15 again. This project has given me enormous self-confidence and it's not over yet [he intends to keep sitting for portraits]. I don't dwell on the future and I know about the debilitating effects of this disease. I am determined to squeeze all I can into each day. 'Over The Hill," photographic portraits of Timothy Andrews, and 'Don't Look Back," a series of paintings by Jane Andrews, will be on display at Farley Farm House from June 2 to July 31 (Sundays only). For info call 01825 872 856 or visit www.farleyfarmhouse.co.uk