Like most artists, I have completed a range of self portrait studies and paintings over the years. When you can’t find someone to sit for you, there’s always a willing and eager subject right there in the mirror. Apart from that, there’s also the self-analysis thing that seems to obsess many artists, myself included.
This is a detail from a self portrait painted in 1970, when I was 20, nearly 40 years ago. I am not posting the complete portrait because, to be quite frank, I find it somewhat embarrassing. Embarrassing for a number of reasons, not least of all because of what I am wearing in the original. The reason I have selected this clip is because I thought it would be fun to compare it to my present BetterMost avatar. It stands-up quite well, cheesy grin notwithstanding. It’s not that I was a particularly cheerless, grim-faced individual back then. That’s not the case at all. Rather, at the time of painting this portrait, I was intensely self-absorbed in analyzing my features in an endeavour to capture them on canvas. Though it appears that I am looking at you, I am, in fact, closely examining my own features in the mirror.
My avatar photo at left was taken in March 2008, whereas the portrait was painted in 1970, so there’ll be some extra wrinkles evident in the former. But there’s another difference. Do you know what it is? The avatar is a photograph of the
right side of my face, whereas the portrait is a mirror image, which makes it the
left side of my face, as viewed by me looking in the mirror as I painted my features. Confusing, no?
This painting is executed in oils on canvas.
Self Portrait - 1970
