Monday, January 18, 2010

Other People's Self-portraits. What can we learn from them?

Lucian Freud, Reflection (self portrait), 1985, 22X20, oil on canvas.


I've been painting a self-portrait. I take a night painting class at the Art Student's League and we are having a class show next week. I am supposed to have my self-portrait done by Thursday. With only a little window of daylight per day this time of year and me choosing to use it by standing by the window in my "studio" (a little alcove in the front room of my Brooklyn apartment), I find the days ticking by and myself painting, rubbing out, and repainting the same thing, my eyes. The sun has set and I need some inspiration if i am going to get up earlier tomorrow and drink more coffee and get this done and learn something from doing so by Thursday, so I turn to some other artists' self-portraits to see what they saw in themselves. Their self-portraits are as different as they are or were. What do you see in yourself and have you looked deep enough lately?

John Singer Sargent, Self-portrait, 1892, oil on canvas.


Kathe Kollwitz, Self Portrait, 1898, color lithograph.


Mary Beth McKenzie, self-portrait (front window), collection New York Historical Society, 46 x 30, oil.


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