Self Portrait
Terry and I have really been enjoying the “Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year” series on one of the streaming services.
It’s been SO much fun to watch these artists (handpicked from hundreds who sent their digital images in) get together and try and paint a famous person’s portrait.
But before they are chosen they must send in their OWN self portrait in the hopes that something in their style will catch the eye and the imagination of the judges.
We’ve seen the work of people who did a linocut for their image. We’ve seen one man paint on wax and then paint his portrait completely with pointillism. Some people work very large and one lady sent her portrait in on a wee 5 X 5 “ image. They have painted on canvas, glass, paper, and even a cupboard door to name but a few. They use dots or drips ,wild colours , or very muted. Fascinating!
And the most fascinating thing to me is how much the portraits look like the actual people. WOW!
If they win the contest (where they’ve painted everyone from famous sports figures, writers, actors, etc.) then they will get the high commission to paint someone chosen to have their portrait hang in the National Gallery. We recently watched the episode where the winner not only got to paint the very well known Graham Norton, radio and talk show host, but realised that he was actually related to him going way back. SO cool! What are the odds?
Anyway, Terry and I were so inspired by the show that we decided to give it a go at our own self portraits. Terry did a very good coloured pencil sketch of his head. His first try ever! (I’ll let him decide if he wants to share.)
I did my very first acrylic on canvas self portrait. (Our daughter, Emily, reminded me that I actually did a watercolour self portrait once as part of a 25th anniversary gift for my husband.)
So…..
Here it is . You can watch the ‘painting journey’ again….. ‘did my best’.
