"Self Interest"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

I loved this man I spotted in the National Gallery of Art.  First glance, I assumed he was dragged to the museum but he stopped at every single painting during the five or ten minutes I watched him.  He seemed truly interested in any artist, any subject, and in any room.  He spent more time with Vincent van Gogh's work - most visitors do because they know who van Gogh is.

Vincent van Gogh painted 36 self-portraits in his short career of a mere 10 years.  Early on, he concentrated on landscapes and still life and a few portraits but after he admitted himself into the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, still painting the fields nearby and surrounding landscapes, he suffered a severe breakdown.  Many believe his demise resembled the symptoms of epilepsy, but the disease was not understood at the time.  Vincent was incapacitated for five weeks and retreated to his studio, during which he painted the Self-Portrait you see in my painting.

This self-portrait is a standout - done in a single sitting - the artist dressed in his smock holding his palette and brushes.  His face is somewhat haunting, his awareness of his gaunt, pale face is painted with stark greenish/blue tones, the brush strokes are thick with paint.  Most of all, it feels intense as if van Gogh's anxiety was portrayed so honestly.  Within a year, in 1890, the artist was dead at the age of 37.  

The astounding legacy Vincent van Gogh left, in just a decade, was about 2,100 artworks including 860 oil paintings.  A fact I still can't comprehend.

"His Hunch"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

The Art Institute of Chicago has several paintings by Vincent van Gogh but his Self-Portrait is special.  The size is unusually modest and you'll notice he adopts George Seurat's pointillist technique - one he saw in Seurat's fabulous A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.  Every single stroke is slashed on in little bits, the background is speckled with blues, greens, oranges and reds on top of a teal/blue surface.  The face is intense with multitudes of flesh, teal, oranges, reds, ochers and whites.

It's a small painting but an enormous treat for visitors.

"Go Dutch"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

I know I've been quiet on this blog but I've finished two larger paintings during my absence - one for a group show coming up titled Perfectionists - a painting that took me 5 days to complete.  Yikes.  That rarely happens.  The other for a show of mine coming up.

So... I needed to get small.  Loosen up.  And I had just read about the famous Dutch artist, Rembrandt, who's work is on exhibit "like never seen before" and thought of his Self-Portrait at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.  Rembrandt did roughly forty self-portraits during his lifetime - this done in 1660 at the age of fifty-four.  This self-portrait admits his age with a furrowed brow, double chin, wrinkles and pouches under his eyes - it's beautiful and honest.

"Bare Necessities"

6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

The brave artist Alice Neel, who lived to the age of 84, was largely unknown in the art world until the early 1970's, when she was in two retrospective exhibitions.  "Life begins at seventy!" she said of her new found recognition at the age of 72.

In 1975, Neel began, what took five years, to complete her Self-Portrait, one of only two.  Referring to this unconventional and somewhat shocking portrait, Neel said "the reason my cheeks got so pink was that it was so hard for me to paint that I almost killed myself painting it."

Alice Neel painted dozens of portraits of her lovers, friends, family, artists, poets and even strangers. They are all delightful.  Her total acceptance of her own aging body and laying it out there for all the world to see is most admirable.

"Lend Me Your Ear" (study)

6 x 6"

oil on panel
sold

I've written about Vincent van Gogh in past posts and still I can't get over the fact that this brilliant artist completed nearly 900 paintings, 1,100 drawings and countless etchings between the ages of 28 through 37 years old.  And the majority of paintings were done in the last two years of his life.  And.... he only sold one painting in his lifetime.  Remarkable.

Van Gogh painted 30 self-portraits during the last several years of his life - in large part to not being able to pay a model.  Each and every portrait gives the viewer great insight to his state at that time.  The self-portrait above was done in 1887 while he lived in France and largely due to being influenced by the young artist, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, van Gogh approached this painting with the play between the complimentary colors of blue-greens and the orange-reds.  He adopted elements of Pointillism, using small, colored strokes inside the background and clothing, something that can't be seen from a distance, but up close, is so very effective.  

From the Art Institute of Chicago,  a man closely views Vincent van Gogh's Self-Portrait.  This is a small study of a larger version I am currently working on - I wanted to make sure I could get the tilt of the man's head right before I tackled a larger painting.

"The Man Himself"

 6 x 8"

oil on panel
sold

What occurs to me when I study Self-Portrait by Rembrandt van Rijn is this is not only an exquisite oil painting but it's the man himself - notably one of the most famous artists of all time.

Rembrandt is known to have drawn, painted and etched many self-portraits during his lifetime and one can gauge his personal events and moods just by the differences in appearance in these portraits.  He painted this self-portrait in 1659 after he had suffered financial failure after many, many years of success.  He lost his mega-mansion and other possessions to pay back his creditors.  He was in a state of defeat, one can imagine.  Yet there is a sense of dignity in his older face and a deliberate portrayal of a learned painter.

From the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

"Black and Blue"

6 x 6"

oil on panel
sold

For many, I hope you are home safe and sound and ready for snowmageddon - I was hoping we'd have a little of that here in Atlanta.  

My work days were interrupted by my 19-year-old furnace dying, fortunately it was replaced yesterday - so now we're broke but warm and happy.  So the painting goes back on to recover from that.

I could go on and on about Andy Warhol, but most people know how brilliant, odd, prolific he was.  One of my very favorite movies is Basquiat - the late, great David Bowie portraying Warhol.  Great flick to stream in this wintery weekend.

Meself

12 x 9"

oil on masonite
nfs

Chalk this one up to watching a documentary on Francis Bacon. He used oils for what they were meant for. Each stroke is deliberate, each color is decided. He said something about embracing the happy accidents that happen when the stroke of one color meets another. When I look at one of his paintings, I can imagine where he began and where he ended - those are the paintings that inspire me the most. That's what thrills me about Lucian Freud's work. They made me want to paint when I was a little girl and still do. Perhaps I'll do a self portrait in the beginning of every year, from now on.

American Artist Self Portrait Competition

Back in February, I entered my painting in American Artist Magazine's Self-Portrait Competition - and I got word yesterday, from the managing editor that I was chosen as a finalist. The article and the winning entries will be published in the October issue. How cool is that?

Update ~ I did not make the final cut after all, but looking at the work that did, I can only be extremely proud that I was considered in the final round.

"Karin"

6 x 6"
oil on masonite
NFS

Next up on the alphabet is K ...... and a friend of mine suggested a while back that I try a self-portrait. Yikes. There's a first time for everything. I have a larger view on my website if you're interested - not that you wanna see my face as big as your screen - but there's some cool brushwork involved. I tried so hard to stay loose on this.