Self Revelation

“Self Revelation”

Wanting to do a self portrait, and show my favorite medium, pastels, I was perplexed about how to incorporate these messy yet colorful sticks of chalk. Other artists show off their palette with long sinewy brushes, sculptors with their cool tools while we pastel artists have broken, (strategically, of course) chalky sticks. As I joked about  having colors and dust on my face and legs, a brilliant idea popped in my head which then became, “Self Revelation”.

There is another side to this painting that presented itself during the process. True enough, I was showing the colors I use for my drawings, but the location of the hands in front of the face can conspire several speculations about the artist, no? The emphasis was on the hands but the viewer is drawn to the eye, the most cherished tool of any artist. The eyes are not only what we see and guide our hands with, but they are used as our source of observation, exploring and collecting images that fit together to compose a painting.

The original painting was created using pastels on a suede mat board.