Portraiture and Ideas of Self, 2015

“Painted portraits have a life of their own that comes from deep in the soul of the painter and where the machine can’t go.”  Vincent van Gogh in a letter to his brother, Theo.

While pursuing portraiture for my Degree Project, I wanted to choose a subject that was personal without being solely about me. My decision to focus on my sisters was rooted in a desire to explore the depths of our relationships as well as their own personalities. I did not want the focus of the project to be on painting representative work, instead, I wanted to use drawing and painting to bring out the areas of my sisters’ personalities and to show my interpretation of them.

For my Degree Project, I examined portraiture as a method to show personality. I began my research by looking at examples of portraiture, especially self-portraiture in history. The artist who most stood out to me in this context was Vincent van Gogh. Prior to the late 19th century, portraiture was primarily a commercial art for wealthy patrons. Self-portraiture was used mostly as a way to advertise the artist’s skill without them having to hire models. The trend of using portraiture as an art form did not gain popularity until the late nineteenth century.

While researching van Gogh, my thoughts kept returning to Alice Neel. I have been interested in her work and its ability to show personality and relationships for a long time. With Neel, I was inspired by her ability to paint a portrait that shows a subject, but uses the artist’s own hand to such an extent where the artist’s voice is equally important. This project was meant to be a reflection of my relationship with my two younger sisters. For that reason, bringing my own hand in as much as possible was imperative and I also avoided using any purely pictorial imagery.