Self Portrait

Self Portrait

On my other blog I was talking about the art of loving yourself. Now by that I did not mean thinking you were the most wonderful thing since sliced bread, I meant simply being aware of your inner worth and being.

To be able to do a good self portrait, I think, takes an amazing depth of honesty. It is, in my humble opinion the most difficult thing to do.

I have, as you know painted others, some of them I am pleased to have done. I have also painted myself and I am not so pleased with that.

I wonder if I will ever try again.

The reason I ask this of myself is because I was asked by a family member yesterday if and when I was going to make a better portrait than the one I have already done.

I am aware that I did not make a good job of this first attempt. Because of that I am a bit wary of going there a second time.

Can those of you who have done a self portrait offer any guidance?

I am also aware that I would never hang such a painting. There seems to be something not right about hanging your own picture .

Now if I had children still small and living at home this sure would keep them well away from the fireplace.

This blog is linked to my other. Positive Thoughts- Not Always

Jackie

Jackie

Having been brave enough to share my drawing of a mountain with you I thought I would have another attempt at a sketch of something else. So I thought I would have another try at drawing a person.

Here it is, Jackie. Now I have tried and finished portraits of people before using pastels. I have even tried a self portrait. These I have always done from a number of photographs. I have never just sat and drawn.

I hope you notice I am not calling it a drawing but a sketch. I need somebody to tell me how, using pencils I make this into a fully fledged drawing of this person. How to I get those lovely textures so many of you are able to do?

Ruby in her blog said you either have it or you do not. I don’t think I have but I might try to find it.

I mention her because today she is off to the hospital for tests, but more importantly she is one of those who I was talking about in my other blog who always seems to see the positive and good in all things. I know some of you like me follow her blogs.

Jackie the old lad in the portrait is another of that ilk. He only ever sees the very best in everything and everybody.

I know he would laugh out loud if he heard me saying, “I hope I am like him when I am old.”

I am not sure I have managed to capture that wry smile of his; I might even have made him looked surly.

OK Katherine just for you. This is a sketch, done by a pencil.

Keep looking on the good side. This is the way of the Tao.

This blog is linked to my other. It All Depends Where You Are

Lead Kindly Light

Lead Kindly Light

I painted yesterday. It started out to look like another day when I would end up with nothing but a fuller bin. It turned out to be instead a day with a happy accident. I had started to paint something else but I was not at all happy with it. My concentration level would be slipping because of this and so the mistake occurred. I lifted the wrong colour. At the speed I paint there is never a coming back from that. But I did like what had happened on the canvas.

I made a coffee and stood looking at the happy accident. As those who follow my blogs know I have been walking the coastal path near where I stay. I intend to do it all, and the way I am doing it in sections walking out and back, when I have finished I will have seen it both ways. It is 150km so I will be having a few walks.

As I looked I saw different aspects of the walks I have been having. I put them together to come up with this painting. It is a painting of nowhere and lots of places. One of the little fishing villages, look at it from a distance. The lighthouse I saw the other day.

One or two people have seen it. One of the lads I was talking with yesterday thought I must have been in a gloomy mood when I used these colours. My wife felt the same, asking me why I chose to use such a dark palette.

They were both wrong. I did not choose the palette the happy accident did. I felt far from gloomy I felt peaceful and calm.

Why the title I have given it? I was a parish minister for 20 years and I loved nothing more than a good sing. Sunday after Sunday I was able to slip into the service a hymn that I liked to sing, and then I got the pleasure of blasting it out in full voice.

As most of you know I cannot sing anymore and yet after all those years, I still find myself humming some of those tunes as I paint. Often the song I am humming without knowing why gives me the title for the painting.

I having been discussing with Ruby the importance of the titles of paintings. I think they point people in the direction you would like them to be thinking as they look at your work. They should though, also allow the person to put their own interpretation to the work and fill in the gaps for themselves.

So here it is, Lead Kindly Light. For those who know the next line I think this painting just about fits the bill.



This blog is linked to my other. I Am Alive and it is a Good Day

The Positive Man

The Positive Man

Before I say a single word about this let me say to the person I tried to depict I am very sorry. I will make another attempt to get it right. I am sure I have aged the person and not at all done justice to him. My only excuse is that I was trying so hard to depict the inner being that I got the outer wrong. I do not think I will put this in the bin as yet because I kind of like the character I have ended up with. He does look like a very friendly guy and he does make me smile.

I have learned a great deal from this one. I have learned that to make a good representation of a person it is important to catch the main aspects of the persons face before concentrating on the inner quality. I have also learned that painting a person from afar is not easy.

I will try again with this one. Maybe not today, but I will make another attempt. In the meantime with apologies to him I show it and the efforts of yesterday.

Painted on black paper using a white pastel.

If you are interested in seeing the type of character I was trying to capture go to my other blog and read there.

This blog is linked to my other. Making The Best Of What We have