Friday, March 20, 2009

Self Portrait



One of the hardest and easiest faces to paint is your own. If you're surrounded by relatives, you are familiar with most of your features; you might have the same nose shape as your son, eyebrows like your father, chin like your sister, mouth like your grandmother. But it's also infinitely difficult because every color and line you put in defines YOU. Your age, your health, your lack of time in the sun. You coldly observe your hair is out of place, you vainly try to make it look a little nicer than it is. The constant play of making it look nice vs cold observation is much harder when the face you are painting is your own. I was recently challenged to do a self portrait, and my dear husband posed me and snapped a photo as a guide for this painting. So here it is. Does an artist's self portrait show the talent of said artist, or does it show what they wish they looked like?

5 comments:

Catherine said...

Oh, Mimi; it IS you! And much more shows than merely a picture of the outside of you; you've cpatured your character leaking out too. As the Russians say in English, "I'm very much liking it."

perugina said...

Hi Mimi, i have to agree here with Cat's comments. "This is YOU!!!" Great that you had husband help you with the pic!
Brava!

Margy said...

well, I'm slow, but I get there eventually. Great picture! It's you and provides a little mystery too. I would love to see a series...you are a most interesting subject!!!

Unknown said...

Hey Mimi. You've really caught the devil in you with that self portrait!

Mari

Shas said...

That is definitely a Mona Lisa smile.
Very impressive accomplishment.

 
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