Talking about the self portrait.

I had the privilege to lead a session at the FCA-SOS chapter this weekend. The topic was "The Self Portrait". I demonstrated one process to begin such a painting and we had a fairly lively dialogue concerning motivation and things to consider before embarking on the project.
We looked at some examples from history (I'll share a few below) which is very helpful to any artist as she considers the many decisions that need to be made in the creation of a self-portrait. We are not trying to paint a representation of surface anatomy but rather, digging deeper, taking advantage of line, value, colour, edges, symbolism and distortion to portray something important and unique in the artist.
The self portrait, like any work of art we make, should speak visually to the viewer nullifying written or spoken text. We should understand the artist a little bit more when we take in such a personal work.

Norman Rockwell


Henri Matisse


Lucien Freud


Carl Larsson


Frida Kahlo


Chuck Close


Chuck Close (now)