Nick Botting and (below) his paintings of The Lamb pub, Maison Bertaux in Greek Street and the Coach and Horses

IT’S always nice to answer the phone to find the jolly artist Nick Botting.

And even better when he’s calling to say he’s prepared a new exhibition.

So mark your diaries for May because his captures of London life – very much including Soho and the bohemia all around – will be on display at the Portland Gallery in St James’s.

The show is titled PRESENCE and we chatted about how for much of the time we all miss the simple beauties in this city because we are wedded to our mobile phones and more often than not staring at those little screens.

You don’t notice it until you stop and look across a piazza or park and see how they are now part of us, like a robot appendage.

Nick said his work was “to reflect the importance of the moment we are always within”, adding: “I try to pull viewers into the pictures by balancing, reducing and ordering what I see to make the world in front of us more accessible as a whole.

“It is a happy accident that I can liken this process to the fresh interest in live acoustic music, or for the simple engagement of reading from a book.”

Maybe you’ve seen him around town at work. “People like to know how things are done,” he said.

“These paintings are done by sitting in front of the subject with a paint box and responding to the day around me. This is no hardship when it’s the Coach and Horses on a Friday afternoon, but perhaps it is more so on the foreshore of the Thames in the first days of January.”

Mr Botting’s past work includes several high profile commissions including the Football Association’s painting of the first FA Cup Final at the new Wembley Stadium.

Harrington’s own favourite of the gorgeous samples he sent through this week is the view up Greek Street and that spot outside Maison Bertaux which on the right day and with the right croissant or cake feels like the one of London’s perfect places.

The exhibition starts on May 9 and is not simply restricted to Westminster. You’ll also find the swimmers from Hampstead Heath’s ponds, running clubs in Regent’s Park and the wonderful retro-feel site of the Screen on the Green cinema in Islington.