I go through phases. I spend long long periods of time when I never do any sort of self-portrait. I tend to be attracted to elements on faces I don't know. But there is something to be said for exploring something familiar and finding another point of view. There is a liberating quality to searching more deliberately for greater nuances in the iris or the structure of lines in the mouth. It is challenging to re-visit a subject which changes as years pass. It is familiar and yet oddly new. I found that I was drawn to exploring the shades and hues in this deeply intense, profoundly blue turtle-neck. Then I chose to use the blue again; reflecting it in the choice of background. I found that after a long hard winter the skin tone was "Paler" and this was intensified by the colour of the top.
At first I was very aware of the subject. But soon I was completely disengaged from a sense of ownership. This ambivalent relationship ebbed and flowed during the entire time at the easel. I suspect it continues even now. I enjoyed the lines which defined a life lived. My relationship to the subject shifted as I focussed on each isolated and yet interconnected element. I chose to alter the hair colour.The lips were left pale and unvarnished. The line of the nose continues to reflect a bump received after a childhood accident. This choice proved extremely difficult as it pushes and pulls at my aesthetic self-definition. In the end I left it as a more truthful reflection of physical self. The piece ultimately was framed. Acrylic on Linen Board- 20 x 24 "