SELF PORTRAITS [2025]
One cold winter’s evening, I was sat watching reruns of Sky Art’s Portrait Artist of the Year, when I suddenly started wondering if I could achieve a self-portrait in four hours. It seemed impossible to me. I had never managed to paint a self-portrait with a colour palette that didn’t make me look a different race, or with any kind of likeness, let alone in under four hours. So of course, that is what I set out to do.
These two portraits are the result of that trial. The first, took six hours total. Four, then sleep, then two more to correct a likeness issue. The second took four hours exactly. The eyes are almost there. The rest is definitely me. The method of painting as always was expressive - both completed in oils, alla prima with a limited (Apelles/Zorn) palette. I didn’t really know where it was headed, but I knew I had two lovely reclaimed vintage frames to put them in. Priorities of course… I am yet to decide if the long break since the last time I attempted a self-portrait, or the four hour time pressure, was the key to these two little paintings, but on the whole I was pleasantly surprised with them. I think this will become part of my periodic painting practice. To sharpen both the mind and eye.