“Know Thyself” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_thyself is an ancient Greek aphorism carved into stone at the entrance to Apollo’s temple at Delphi. One of the disciplines an artist enjoys is occassionaly rendering a self portrait. This exercise can be a harsh dose of reality as time passes. Intensely studying one’s self image can open a window of memories and life experiences as you try to capture the subtle nuance of portraiture. The image on the left is a recent quick sketch I made after a 3 week hiatus in Canada. I quarantined at my brothers house for two weeks, as required by the Canadian Government for Covid control before I was free to help out my ageing parents. Luckily I brought lots of art supplies, one of the benefits of an artistic life is we tend to be easily entertained, just need a surface and an instrument to make marks with and we’re happy.

Two weeks with my brother’s family was really wonderful, I got to know my brother again after many years of all too brief visits. It was also very nostalgic for me to hang out in the town I grew up in again after many years. So much had changed but I still managed to find some familiar haunts.

The image on the top right is a 24″ x 36″ self-portrait on canvas I painted about 10 years ago. I placed a large mirror in my studio and painted this reflected portait. People tell me I look so stern and serious, I think most self portaits suffer this criticism as the artist is concentrating so intently. There is so much to consider when attempting to capture a likeness of somebody, Sketching with charcoal and conte is one thing, then when you add full color it opens up a whole new universe of creativity and challenge.

Like anything worthwhile in life, practise and study are necessary and through these disciplines and meditations I believe we come to know ourselves.

The three images above from left to right; the left sketch is a self portrait I made, it must have been about 25 years ago, judging by the amount of hair on my head. The middle image is a recent sketch of my lovely wife Nancy, I think this piece captures her youthful spirit under that glorious silver mane. The right piece is a snippet of a watercolor sketch i did recently of Nancy holding her morning coffee.

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