Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. ~ Oscar Wilde

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. ~ Oscar Wilde

Ah, but in this case, I am both the artist as well as the sitter. So, as the current beliefs say, these portraits are even more revealing.

I started out with a self portrait I would never have guessed I would have the courage to do. Or at least, the courage to do and show. I was inspired to bare the reconstructed breast, while it is still in its WIP stage (Work In Progress). I feel it is representative of the fact that both the breast, as well as my life, are works in progress. I bared the breast, but kept my face hidden. I was playing with the idea of being both naked to the world, and yet hidden. A friend helped with the title, Life In Progress, because as she put it, "you are not only a breast".

Life In Progress

12 x 18

Pan Pastel on coloured Strathmore 500 series paper

The next painting was based on a photo that had been taken of me while I was laughing someones joke. I liked it, and thought it would lend itself to being done in oils, impasto style. I used more vibrant colours to give it more punch. I wanted it to be looser in style, and thought it might be good to keep my shirt on for at least one of the self portraits.

Untitled

16 x 20

Oil, Impasto on canvas

The third painting was inspired after the second, but I actually started work on it in between working on the other two. Again, playing with the idea of being both naked and hidden. This time, though the painting is not as revealing, you can see I am naked in the moonlight, and yet still hidden by the mask. I do wish that in the photo, I could capture the details of the glitter that I embedded in the gold and purple details of the mask. In person, these details really "pop" as a result of that glitter.

Moonlight Celebration

16 x 20

Oil on canvas

So, what inspired me to start with self portraits? I entered a contest called "The Power of Self" - an artists contest of self-portraiture. You can see my entries here.  Please, while you are there vote for me, by clicking on the stars at the top of the page. A click on the fifth star is the highest rating, on the fist star, it's the lowest rating.

I am looking forward to your votes - and to putting my shirt back on!

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

Recently, I started taking night courses again. I wanted to get back to Life Drawing, since I hadn't done any for years, and then I decided I'd take a few courses on portraiture, since I had never done any of that. So, in September, I headed to school for 2 classes: one Portraiture in Oil, and the other Life Painting in Oil.

One of the things about portraiture classes that never ceases to amaze me, is the fact that we all put something of ourselves into the portrait. Literally. The very thin faced woman, who always makes her models look thin faced; the Asian girl who always makes her models appear to be Asian; the wider set man with bushy eyebrows, whos' models always have a likeness to him. It's absolutely fascinating to me. Psychologically, I know why. We all know our own faces the best, so unconsciously, we will paint what we know, rather than what we see, until we learn to paint what we see.

What fascinates me even more though, is that, for the life of me, I cannot see in my own paintings, where or how I put myself in there!

This semester, I thought I'd try the acrylics class, since I hadn't really ever worked with acrylics.

We started the acrylics class with a still life, to get the feel of the paints.

What I love about the acrylics, is the ease with which I can quickly overpaint and correct. What I find challenging, still, is the lack of time for blending. Having worked with oils since I was 9, I am used to long periods where I can play with colour blends. This has been especially challenging when we moved to portraiture.

That lack of time may not be a bad thing though. I am finding that sometimes, the speed with which I am forced to paint, makes me think less, and feel more, and I seem to be slowly allowing myself to loosen up a bit.

I still sometimes find my paintings too stiff. For now though, I want to concentrate on accuracy. From there I can branch out to more loose, and abstract. I just need a little patience to get there. (Yeah, right. I'm a Gemini, and speed is the name of the game!)

Here is another I finished last night.

I keep looking at this, and thinking I need to learn how to paint a 5 o'clock shadow.