Tuesday, December 16, 2014

New Self Portrait

In anticipation of my show in May I decided to paint a new self portrait.  I haven't done one for awhile, and I plan to devote part of my show to paintings I've done of myself over the years.  Zislav Sikora, a visiting teacher from Chicago, once told me that self portraits were an important part of my work.  Though I don't know how important they are, they certainly represent a large part of the paintings I've done throughout my life.  This is a little one, 8x10, done with acrylic paint.  I'd forgotten how much I like acrylics and am glad I tried them again.  It's a fairly good likeness, though possibly a little flattering.  If that's true, it is the first one that is.  I have always been pretty brutal when portraying myself.  I don't know if it's because of a poor  perception of  my appearance (or of myself in general), or lack of ability.

This painting is the result of three days of struggle.  Usually I don't have to work so hard.  It could be because I almost had to chain myself to my easel to keep from going back to my origami.

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